For Andrew Dana, a co-owner of Timber Pizza and deli-bagelry Call Your Mother, it was only a matter of time before one of his dozens of employees got infected with COVID-19. Though Dana felt that his restaurants’ health and safety precautions—including slimmed-down teams, twice-daily kitchen cleanings, regular glove and mask changes, and social distancing—were strong, he thought it would be statistically impossible for the coronavirus not to strike one of his workers.

Unfortunately, says Dana, he proved right. On May 4, a Timber employee called in to say they weren’t feeling well. They tested positive for COVID-19 the next day.

Dana and Daniela Moreira, his business partner and fiancée, who is also the restaurant’s chef, decided to temporarily shutter Timber, located in Petworth, as well as Call Your Mother’s two venues, in Park View and Capitol Hill. The closures would allow their employees to get tested while each property received a professional cleaning.

The owners began rethinking safety precautions for the pandemic. At first, Dana says he felt like he was improvising as they went along, mostly relying on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and D.C. Health. He also gleaned some advice from physician-friends who are on the frontlines of the battle against the virus. “There’s no roadmap on how to handle this stuff,” he says.

Timber, now sanitized, is set to reopen Wednesday for takeout service. (It will still be closed to in-person dining and events, as all D.C. restaurants are under an active mayoral order.) Additional protective measures will be in place going forward at all three restaurants, according to Dana. For example, employees will be scheduled to work in small pods rather than as part of an open schedule involving everyone. That way, should anyone test positive for COVID-19, they will have interacted only with four or five other employees, minimizing the risk of contagion.

There won’t be any overlap between people’s shifts any longer either. The prep team will come in first, do their work, and clean the restaurant before leaving. Then, the opening team will come in, re-sanitize the space, fill orders, and clean up once again before closing.

Even as restaurateurs like Dana and Moreira try to keep up with and implement best practices amid the coronavirus crisis, small kitchens across D.C. are forcing restaurant employees to work in close quarters. These workers sometimes must interact with customers, delivery drivers, and suppliers to do their jobs, putting them at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 as compared with the general population.

Timber Pizza isn’t the only local restaurant that temporarily closed after one of its employees caught the coronavirus. Italian trattoria Centrolina and sister spot Piccolina, both located at the CityCenterDC development, as well as El Rey Taqueria on U Street NW and other properties in its restaurant group—including Echo Park, American Ice Company, and Chez Billy Sud—all recently paused operations after a staffer tested positive for COVID-19. Centrolina and Piccolina have since reopened; El Rey has said it’s aiming to reopen Thursday.

“I was surprised and shocked,” says Amy Brandwein, the chef-owner of Centrolina and Piccolina. “We had been cleaning and vigilant. You read about it on the news, but it’s different when it’s someone you work with every day.”

Brandwein’s restaurants were already operating with a reduced staff, approximately a third of their usual size, to ensure social distancing within the spaces (the CDC recommends a standard distance of six feet). Masks, frequent cleanings, and glove changes were all part of the workers’ new routines following the District’s shutdown, which started in March. Interactions with customers went cashless and contact-free.

With Centrolina’s and Piccolina’s reopenings have come even more precautions. Employees’ temperatures are checked twice a day with infrared thermometers. Every 30 minutes, there’s mandatory handwashing, and every hour, all the kitchen stations are sanitized. On the floors throughout both restaurants, green dots mark off six-foot intervals.

In the highly fluid situation of the pandemic, figuring out how to maintain a COVID-19-safe environment can be confusing for the city’s restaurateurs, including its most-established ones. “No matter how much research and reading you do, you’re constantly second-guessing what is the best approach,” says Ian Hilton, a co-owner of the H2 Collective restaurant group that includes El Rey Taqueria.

For Hilton, communicating constantly with his employees is key. “Reassure them that the most important thing for them is to be safe and to not have an increased level of anxiety by feeling they have to go to work when we’re in a time when there’s already a tremendous amount of anxiety,” he says. All the workers mentioned in this article who were afflicted by the coronavirus are doing well and expected to make full recoveries, according to their employers.

That pervasive stress, along with ever-evolving safety guidance and a lack of on-site diners, is even taking a toll on the tone of some restaurants. “The first couple of weeks [after closing to in-restaurant dining] we were playing the music loud and enjoying a new environment,” says Brandwein, who adds that wearing a mask can complicate restaurant work by interfering with one’s concentration. “And we got joy and excitement from seeing customers. Now putting the food in boxes, but still making it look beautiful, is the joy.”

Dana, of Timber and Call Your Mother, has noticed a subtle shift in his employees’ mood and morale. “Are there five people dancing in the kitchen?” he asks. “No, but that comes back.” For Jonathan Krinn, the chef-owner of Clarity, a fine-dining destination in Vienna, Virginia, known for its tasting menu, it’s not the tenor of his kitchen that’s changed, but its volume. “We still joke around,” says Krinn, who plans on reopening Clarity Wednesday after a two-week hiatus. “You just have to talk louder because you’re farther away.” The 4,000-square-foot eatery is down to 16 staffers, from 30 previously.

Other area restaurateurs have found themselves emotionally buoyed by the crisis. “I wake up with more energy and drive than I’ve had in my entire life,” says Adam Greenberg, the chef-owner of Coconut Club, located near Union Market. During D.C.’s shutdown, Coconut Club switched from a tropical-themed sit-down restaurant and bar with 20 staffers to a bare-bones team of five serving up comfort food for takeout Thursdays through Saturdays. It’s now running a market where people can score grocery staples, like eggs, butter, and vegetables, on those same days. (A marijuana-delivery idea was scrapped in April.)

Greenberg is also complementing Coconut Club’s offerings with a new business called Subbies, a delivery-only sandwich venture with Pete Sitcov, the former owner of Yang Market in Eckington. Since launching May 6, they’ve sold out every day so far.

“It’s been a positive experience for us to figure out how to survive in a world that looks like this,” says Greenberg.