Their phones were ringing before the news conference ended.
On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the next steps in reopening the Texas economy after a shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time he got around to saying restaurants could open Friday at up to 25 percent of their capacity, three of Dallas’ destination steakhouses were already well on their way to filling their slots, re-hiring staff and preparing for a greatly changed dining landscape.
Perhaps nowhere in the dining landscape will changes be more noticeable than at the steakhouses, the top of Dallas’ food chain.
By rule, there won’t be any jars of the signature complimentary pickles on the table at the original Bob’s Steak and Chop House on Lemmon Avenue, but there will be staff dedicated to sanitizing everything from the booths to the doorknobs.
Diners at Al Biernat’s will find a kids menu, more family-style entrees, and they can access the wine list on their own phones, if they prefer.
At Nick and Sam’s in Uptown, the raw bar has been transformed into a dining-to-go station for those still uncomfortable with dining out. There will be no valet parking anywhere.
Is it ideal? No. But, for the restaurateurs, it’s a start.
“Nothing is making money right now, but it allows us to stay in touch with our customers and put staff back to work,” said Al Biernat, who has operated his Oak Lawn restaurant for 22 years and has been a mainstay of the Dallas dining scene since 1984. He says he’s been able to rehire about 50 of the 160 employees he furloughed.
“If you completely shut down, I’m afraid you are going to be out of the game. You have to try to innovate and move along. It’s going to be different. I think it will be OK, but it’s going to be different for a while.”
They have started to diversify. All three operators offered to-go and delivery services during the quarantine. They expect that to continue, at least in the short term. Biernat also added a “meat market,” allowing customers to order his food and prepare it at home.
But steakhouses aren’t built for takeout or delivery. They are about service and show. The service now will start with completely empty tables and servers wearing masks and gloves (though gloves are not mandatory). Biernat has had custom black masks made and ordered black latex gloves for his servers because “they don’t look as surgical.”
The show is about dark, clubby rooms, extensive wine lists and extra touches. Instead, Bob Sambol said he will lighten the room at Bob’s to provide more illumination for patrons. There will be sanitization stations throughout the restaurant.
There will be even more reliance on the regular customers ― those who dine in their restaurants about once a month ― than on the convention, cocktail and celebration crowd. Those three categories have combined to represent about 50 percent of his business, Sambol said. Those categories are likely to be down sharply.
But Sambol said he can seat 70 people at his restaurant at any one time under the 25 percent regulations. All those reservations for Friday are gone.
“You rely on people who have an emotional attachment to the restaurant,” Sambol said. “And we have to make sure that nobody comes in and thinks they can’t be safe. We will definitely be overstaffed. The [changes] are endless, but we’ve got to start somewhere. It assures people that we are trying.”
“Between sports and conventions, people always wanted to go to a good steakhouse in Dallas,” said Samir Dhurandhar, founding chef and partner at Nick and Sam’s. “Will we get all of that back? Probably not. But when people do spend money at this point, I think they are going to want a sure thing.”
In the meantime, they have worked on tweaking menus and trying to hone approaches on their new takeout/delivery business. Dhurandhar, for example, has used the last month for research and development. He is considering an overhaul of the Nick & Sam’s pastry and dessert selections.
Come Friday, they will go back to what they do best, even if it is in a changed environment. There are risks associated with opening back up to diners, but, as Sambol pointed out, there were risks associated with takeout, too.
“This is the next step,” he said. “All we can do is abide by the rules and give it the best chance to succeed. I’m not a doctor; I’m a restaurateur who has spent a large portion of my life trying to do the right thing for customers and staff.
"I don’t know that anybody can completely assure us that this is the right decision, but we are going to go about it the right way, and we’re going to take every effort to make sure the experience is safe and enjoyable. It’s the most important thing any of us are going to be doing for some time.”
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
