As coronavirus cases continue to surge in Dallas County, some restaurateurs are choosing to preemptively close their restaurants, fearing staffers could get infected if they don’t temporarily shut down.
Dozens of other restaurants have already closed because one of their own tested positive for COVID-19. Restaurateurs are grappling with a difficult question: Do they tell the public about the COVID-19 cases to help curb the spread, or do they keep quiet so they don’t lose potential customers?
Bob Sambol, the namesake of Bob’s Steak and Chop House, is closing the Lemmon Avenue restaurant June 28 through July 6. Bob’s usually closes for the July 4 holiday anyhow; Sambol says it’s the slowest week of the year.
But this year, the temporary closure is also a proactive way to sanitize the restaurant and get employees tested. Sambol confirmed Wednesday that no workers at his steakhouse have tested positive for COVID-19, but there is concern.
“We don’t have a case, but we’re going to have one,” Sambol says. “Everybody’s having one.”
Three bars in Deep Ellum ― Armoury D.E., Ruins and Shoals Sound & Service ― have closed temporarily. On Facebook, the owner of Shoals said the brief dining room closure was to “retool, plot, plan and reset” because of the rising cases of COVID-19, and they continue to offer takeout. At Armoury D.E. and Ruins, employees at both businesses are being tested now, and so far none have been infected with COVID-19.
Ruins and Armoury co-owner Peter Novotny calls the conundrum “a lose-lose situation.” Most restaurateurs are feeling the pull: They need to make money. And closing temporarily means even less revenue.
Sambol points to the stress that restaurant workers feel as they continue to interact with strangers, despite city and county suggestions to stay home.
“It seems like a good time to just catch our breath and give everybody a week off,” Sambol says. “It’s just lucky that we haven’t had a case. But the tension is crazy right now, employees are nervous, I think we all need a breather. So, we will go through our sanitization and sterilization process, catch our breath, and go from there.”
Gorji Restaurant is moving to a takeout model right now because of the spike in cases. In an email to customers, the owner says a lack of guidelines has made reopening the restaurant a guessing game.
“It has become a political dispute between the scientific experts and some governmental officials, which leaves us in limbo,” the letter says. It also notes that fine-dining restaurants are at a disadvantage because disposable utensils and fleeting interactions with servers don’t make for a memorable experience. Plus, the letter says Gorji employees are being “pitted against customers to ensure [they’re] wearing masks.”
Nora Restaurant in the Bishop Arts District is taking a two-week break, according to a post on Instagram, “for the safety of our customers and employees.” The restaurant is expected to reopen July 7. Val’s Cheesecakes is also closing all locations temporarily for COVID-19 testing.
The owners of Oak Cliff shops Oddfellows and Lucia were some of the earliest restaurateurs to scale back on dining options to protect the health of their workers.
Lucia closed in March, following the sweeping government order that all dining rooms should shutter temporarily, and the beloved Italian restaurant and its sister restaurant Macellaio remain closed to dine-in customers. Both are open for takeout.
At Oddfellows, the restaurant halted dine-in seatings briefly last week so they could “press pause” as cases spiked. They have had a positive COVID-19 case among the staff and will continue regularly testing with the local company SafeWork, says Amy Wallace Cowan, co-owner. The restaurant was recently sanitized with a product called SaniSafe; they expect to re-sanitize 21 days later.
“In Dallas, there’s just no easing,” Cowan says. She notes that Dallasites “were not ready to sit home anymore,” and that’s impacted the health of restaurant workers.
“It’s one thing for a young, healthy person to get it,” she says. “It’s something else entirely if you’re a line cook who is elderly and probably doesn’t have health insurance.”
After testing and sanitizing, Oddfellows has since reopened its dining room.
Story updated on June 25, 2020.
