A wave of coronavirus cases fueled by holiday gatherings and the omicron variant is the latest threat to northwest Ohio's restaurants and bars, though many say they are surviving just fine thanks to changes made earlier in the pandemic.
“You might see more restaurants with signs out saying 'Temporarily Closed,'” said John Barker, president and chief executive of the Ohio Restaurant Association. That's because just a handful of positive cases among staff at smaller restaurants — many already dealing with employee shortages — will mean they don't have enough to operate.
So far several Toledo-area restaurants and bars told The Blade they have avoided any significant outbreaks among workers and their dining rooms have stayed busy enough.
“I think we know much more about it than we did a year and a half ago," said Chris Morris, co-owner of Inside the Five Brewing Co., adding he has not seen a slowdown in business and only a couple of recent positive cases among staff between the Perrysburg and Sylvania locations. "We know the procedures the health department wants us to follow, so it’s much less stressful than it was.”
Scot Yarnell, co-owner of Earnest Brew Works, said business did decrease in recent weeks as case counts rose, noting many of his customers "are fairly cautious." But he said strong to-go beer sales helped make up for it. In the last two weeks, he said he started asking his staff to start wearing masks again when they serve customers.
“Hopefully there’s nothing much after [omicron] and people start getting their boosters, and start coming out," Mr. Yarnell said.
Nationwide, restaurant seatings have dropped significantly since the start of the month, according to data from the reservation service OpenTable. For the week ending Tuesday, walk-ins and reservations were down 28 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
Omicron-related challenges for restaurants are going to last well into the new year, said Mr. Barker, noting cases in Ohio have yet to crest. So far, he said Ohio restaurants that only offer a sit-down option are dealing with a slowdown in traffic, but those with robust take-out options remain busy.
For Elias Hajjar, owner of the Poco Piatti restaurants, a pivot toward carryout early in the pandemic continues to pay off with the latest surge in cases. The take-out crowd is now a consistent part of Mr. Hajjar's customer base that he doesn't believe will go away even when virus infections decrease.
He feels confident enough that he plans to expand hours at the downtown Toledo Poco Piatti location in the new year — to include both lunch and dinner — after having closed it early in the pandemic.
"From an overall [business] standpoint, we’re actually doing better than we have in years past," Mr. Hajjar said. He said "knock on wood" that there have not been any positives among staff in the most recent case surge, and only two since the pandemic began.
Trevor Deeter, owner of Deet's BBQ restaurants around the Toledo area and the Brick Bar downtown, said any small decrease in in-person diners in recent weeks was made up with a strong season of holiday catering. He is set to tweak his restaurant menus in the new year — including reducing some prices after raising them due to increasing costs earlier in the pandemic.
“We’ve kind of hit our stride, and are comfortable with the adjustments we’ve had to make” because of the virus, Mr. Deeter said.
Mr. Barker said restaurants got a piece of good news recently when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recommended isolation period for people with an asymptomatic case was five days, down from 10.
"Losing an employee for 10 days is really difficult for businesses," Mr. Barker said.
"It's going to help," added Gus Mancy of the new CDC policy. Mr. Mancy runs Mancy's Steakhouse with his cousin Mike, and other Mancy family members operate several other restaurants in the Toledo area.
Mr. Mancy said he has been lucky to have just one employee of 70 out because of the virus this month. There have been some reservation cancellations in recent weeks because of surging case counts, he said, but other diners have filled them.
“Hopefully in the next month or two, we can work our way through this,” he said.
First Published December 29, 2021, 10:43 p.m.
