Roll out the heaters, set the tables and open all the umbrellas: Patio dining is back.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday announcement ending stay-at-home orders and a curfew in California means local restaurants will be able to offer outdoor service again, even though Orange County remains in the most restrictive purple tier.
Local restaurateurs riding a see-saw of ever-changing dining restrictions happily found themselves on the upside again.
“To say we are excited about the reopening of on-premise outdoor dining would be an understatement,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Colonna of Norms Restaurants wrote in an email.
The Bellflower-based chain of full-service restaurants, known for its discount steak breakfasts, was quick to supply itself with tents and outdoor tables when Newsom shut down indoor dining at the end of June.
All on-premises dining was shuttered in December and restaurant owners have endured constant frustrations scrambling to adjust each time restrictions are imposed or lifted. Some have simply ignored the rules, calling it a protest.
Others, such as JC Clow, a founder of The Winery restaurants in Tustin, Newport Beach and San Diego, don’t trumpet any political views on social media. They have simply chosen to retain outdoor dining, saying they have created as safe an environment as they possibly can. “I think people genuinely feel safe outdoors. They really do,” Clow said.
“For every concerned or objective, or maybe negative comment, we hear about dining on our patios, we hear another 100 — I kid you not — people who feel safe, confident, comfortable and appreciative of the measures that we put in place for their protection.”
Clow, who said his reservation list now includes diners driving in from Valencia, Woodland Hills and other Southern California cities, said he believes there was mounting pressure on the governor to reopen outdoor dining. He cited a lawsuit filed by the California Restaurant Association in Los Angeles County Superior Court that sought to block the outdoor dining ban until county health officials provided more evidence about the COVID risks.
The reductions in capacity throughout the pandemic have caused devastating losses, so each restaurant has had to come to its own difficult decisions about closing, pausing or remaining open.
With 45 years in the business, Mutt Lynch’s in Newport Beach is a play-by-the-rules place which has been serving takeout only. But not all its neighbors complied and the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control had to make visits, said Mutt Lynch’s co-owner Jerilyn Lynch. “The agency came and shut everybody down on the peninsula, but then we drive home and everything’s open in Corona del Mar with places filling seats inside and outside. And it’s like, how is that fair?
“We’re confident that we’re going to survive this, but I just didn’t feel comfortable putting people at risk at all. And who knows how that stuff is going to affect people down the road? You never know.”
Innovative Mexican restaurant Puesto did the math and decided just a couple weeks ago to put all its California restaurants on pause until outdoor dining returned, said its co-founder Eric Adler. Now that it’s back, Puesto is making plans to reopen its Los Olivos location in Irvine on Saturday, Jan. 30.
Adler welcomed the chance to get his employees back to work. “In Orange County it’ll help us bring back at least 100 people,” he said.
The first order of business for Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que is to bring back furloughed staff members, according to Brad Hofman, president of Hofman Hospitality Group, which owns it. He said in an email that outdoor dining will reopen as soon as possible.
Restaurants are eager to get back as close to normal as they can. No Ka Oi, a Hawaiian themed restaurant on Main Street in downtown Huntington Beach, was already serving French tourists on its patio Monday. In Sunset Beach, Fish Camp’s patio was also busy at lunch. The continual pivoting has been challenging, said Rob Wilson, chef/owner of Glasspar which has only been open off and on about six months.
“I’ve opened my restaurant three times in a year,” Wilson said. “I joke with some of our customers about it because I’ve got this restaurant down where I can really open it from nothing in the walk-in (refrigerator) to completely going up to the whole menu in two days,” he said.
But Wilson would rather quit zigzagging as he pivots from restaurant to seafood market and back. He’s ready to serve diners again. “We’re like horses waiting at the gate,” he said. “Obviously we’re here and we’re happy to see their faces — with masks on.”
Staff Writer Fielding Buck contributed to this story.
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O.C. restaurateurs ready to offer patio dining again as restrictions lift - OCRegister
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