Matt Blitz
In 2013, Clytie Roberts-Glage and her husband Rico Glage bought the three-decade-old Cafe Berlin in Capitol Hill from the original owners, who were retiring. Over the last seven years, they’ve served the neighborhood and a loyal customer base that’s been coming back for decades.
Of course, like for many small businesses, that all changed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a brief shutdown, they reopened with carryout. Then, at the end of May and in accordance with D.C.’s Phase One, they opened their Biergarten for outdoor dining. Reopening felt like a financial necessity. “At that point, we were sinking so fast and so hard, that … we weren’t going to be able to pay our own personal bills, let alone pay our business bills,” says Roberts-Glage.
But with the city now in Phase Two and restaurants able to reopen for indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, Roberts-Glage and Cafe Berlin are balking.
Roberts-Glage says, for her restaurant, the risks outweigh the positives of moving indoors. It’s not only the health concerns associated with interacting with a potentially contagious customer, but the financial risk involved. Right now, they have five employees working (including her and her husband), but would need two or three more servers to serve indoors. Roberts-Glage would also want to install HEPA filters in the vents to increase air circulation in the subterranean dining room.
“Because we don’t know how many people will feel comfortable indoors, I don’t know how we would recoup it,” she says.
But what may be most concerning for Roberts-Glage are the customers who are not adhering to the guidelines set forth by the city. For restaurants, these guidelines include maintaining no more than 50% capacity during indoor service, prohibiting standing and bar service, spacing tables at least 6 feet apart, and making hand sanitizer and soap available. Employees must wear masks at all times, and gloves while handling food. Patrons, meanwhile, “must wear face coverings while not eating or drinking (e.g., while ordering food and prior to being served, and after completion of meal).”
Roberts-Glage says there’s a significant portion of patrons who have been to Cafe Berlin in Phase One, maybe 40%, who seem to be unaware of or are just plain ignoring the rules in place about social distancing and wearing face masks.
“God, how many people just feel like the rules don’t apply to them,” Roberts-Glage tells DCist. “It just seems like they don’t give a shit about us. And putting us at risk.”
As D.C. moves into Phase Two this week, some restaurants are welcoming back customers in their dining rooms for the first time in months at a limited capacity. But others, like Cafe Berlin, are hesitant.
Like Roberts-Glage, these owners cite safety and health concerns, the financial risk involved, and those customers who don’t — or aren’t willing — to play by the rules. A few restaurant owners told DCist they’ve had to ask multiple patrons to wear face masks when they’re not eating.
On U Street, Tiki bar and grill Archipelago is currently only offering takeout: Owner Owen Thomson does the cooking, and his partner Joe Ambrose prepares drinks. Despite having outdoor seating available they are not using it, nor are they planning to open back up indoors until at least after July 4.
The risk associated with customers not adhering to rules like wearing masks and social distancing has them worried as well. “That is, honestly, our biggest concern,” says Thomson. “We can come up with every plan to keep ourselves and staff safe. But it was hard enough getting people who’d had three drinks to follow the rules when life was a lot simpler.”
It’s the potential of exposure posed to staff that worries him the most. “We are willing to put ourselves [as owners] in a moderately risky situation, but not willing to do it to others.”
Thomson also thinks that the city moved too fast going into Phase Two, citing falling short of metrics that D.C. has had trouble explaining. A spokesperson for the Department of Health confirmed to DCist that the city, on average, is not meeting its goals for contact tracing: to reach out to 90% of newly diagnosed people within one day of receiving a positive test result, and 90% of a person’s close contacts within two days. In a press conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the District has an “expectation” of meeting those goals in the coming days.
Chris Svetlik, owner of Republic Cantina in Truxton Circle, agrees with Thomson, saying it feels “a little soon for D.C. to be approaching Phase Two so soon after Phase One.”
Svetlik says that D.C.’s decline in metrics like community spread has been encouraging, but recent spikes in places like Texas and Florida, which were among the first states to reopen, are reasons for caution.
“I’m obviously not a scientist or epidemiologist, but it just feels that it would need more than a couple of weeks after one phase of reopening to really assess the impact,” he says.
Republic Cantina is currently offering patio seating, and because outdoor dining is weather dependent, offers priority rebooking and discounts on takeout for customers whose reservations are rained out.
Svetlik says it would be helpful financially to have additional seating inside, but has decided to err on the safe side, and reassess as the reopening progresses. Right now, Svetlik is unsure when they’ll allow patrons back inside to dine at Republic Cantina.
“I think it kind of comes down to just not sitting right with me personally, being a part of this potentially too early reopening of indoor spaces,” he says.
Stable, a Swiss-American inspired restaurant on H Street, shared Monday on Instagram that they plan to hold back reopening inside, largely due to the lack of guidance around what happens when a staff member or a patron tests positive. Since the pandemic set in, restaurants have generally been improvising a protocol when an employee contracts COVID-19, by temporarily closing down operations and deep-cleaning their kitchens.
“Employees are not obliged to tell the employer when they tested positive. That’s a big thing that puts everyone at risk,” Silvan Kraemer tells DCist. “Also, if a guest tests positive, what are the procedures? Do you have to close down? Do you have to get everybody tested? We have found it a little bit loose and risky to make the decision on our own.”
Kraemer doesn’t necessarily disagree with D.C.’s decision to move to Phase Two and indoor seating but wished that the guidelines were there to help him make a decision.
Plus, he’s heard from fellow restaurant owners as well that customers are often confused and not following the guidelines around outdoor seating (which Stable doesn’t have). “I’ve heard from a lot of people … that they often end up arguing with customers because they just don’t want to understand what a restaurant has to do,” says Kramer, “I don’t want those arguments.”
However, plenty of restaurants have announced plans to reopen with indoor seating this week, including Circa, Rasika West End, Le Diplomate, Farmers & Distillers, Duke’s Grocery, and Ben’s Chili Bowl. The iconic D.C. restaurant has struggled during the pandemic, laying off most of its staff and closing all but one location (including the Rosslyn location likely permanently).
“We are hoping [to open for indoor seating] by Friday,” says Ben’s Chili Bowl manager Adrian Wyatt. “This is my first pandemic, but we think it will help us. The community always comes out to support us.”
But a few other restaurants — including the Salt Line and Duffy’s Irish Pub — have also said they’re holding off on indoor service for now. Duffy’s Irish Pub told DCist via Twitter direct message that they have similar worries about enforcing social distancing and keeping their staffs safe.
Says Roberts-Glage, “I understand that it’s hard to have the government or business telling you what you can or cannot do. But it’s definitely not more important than the toll of human lives.”
This story has been updated to clarify Duffy’s Irish Pub’s and The Salt Line’s reasons for not reopening for indoor dining.
