After almost seven weeks of a home stay request for regional coronavirus, Santa Barbara County restaurants will be able to, on Tuesday, once again serve customers on the spot, instead of sending them away with takeout orders. .
California Governor Gavin Newsom suspended his stay at home request on Monday, which will allow restaurants to reopen with modified external services.
The state order was put into effect in early December in an effort to contain the state’s rise in COVID-19 cases.
Yona Estrada, owner of YonaRedz at block 500 on State Street, told Noozhawk that she will serve dinners in her restaurant’s outdoor seating area on Tuesday, while following COVID-19 guidelines for maintaining social distance, using mask and separation of individual tables, among other protocols.
“I’m excited about it,” said Estrada. “I can’t wait to have my tables open and my customers to enjoy the meals I serve freshly prepared on the grill. I can’t wait to see vibrant State Street return to normal. “
YonaRedz at Block 500 on State Street will be serving meals in its outdoor dining area starting on Tuesday. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
He noted that eating an on-site meal in a restaurant is much better than eating the same food off-site.
“The whole experience of ordering food is better when you eat there than when you take it home,” said Estrada. “It is a different experience when you eat there.”
Some restaurants barely survive amid ever-changing restrictions during the COVID-19 crisis, and allowing this hard-hit industry to reopen for outdoor services will help boost food and beverage sales and increase the community’s workforce of restaurants.
After weeks of uncertainty, switching to outdoor dining options will be a game changer for several local restaurants.
“It will change everything for all of us because, in my region, some places are completely closed,” said Estrada. “It hurt everyone on that block because people who went to bars also went to our restaurant to get food.
Brandon Ristaino, who has more than 20 years of experience in hospitality, bartender and administration, welcomed the decision to reopen.
Newsom’s decision is good news for the local hospitality industry, said Ristaino.
Ristaino and his wife, Misty, are co-owners of three cocktail bars in Santa Bárbara – Good Lion on block 1200 on State St. Test pilot located in the Funk Zone; and Shaker Mill, a cocktail bar and restaurant on Block 400 on State Street.
“We licensed our team of 42 employees in early December and five of our companies were required to be closed by the governor for a total of 117 days,” Ristaino told Noozhawk. “This closure of outdoor meals and drinks was done in the absence of any supporting data or scientific study of substances that show a strong correlation between outdoor meals and drinks and a spread of COVID.”
State officials announced the lifting of the request for a stay in a California regional home less than 12 hours after information from some restaurant owners that the governor’s office was planning it.
The once bustling State Street boardwalk in downtown Santa Barbara is almost empty on Monday. With the state lifting its regional order to stay at home, restaurants can once again serve customers outdoors. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Monday’s announcement is a sudden and unexpected change in the governor’s policy, Ristaino said.
“Our company will take 3 to 5 days to prepare for a safe reopening, and we intend to do so this coming Saturday,” said Ristaino. “We will continue to adhere to the latest COVID security measures and will continue to provide a safe place for our guests to relax and enjoy a meal and some cocktails.
We are very happy to be able to reopen and make a living again, ”he added.
In the coming days, other local entrepreneurs are preparing to reopen an open-air restaurant this week in Santa Bárbara.
Third Window Brewing Co., located inside The Mill on East Haley Street in Santa Barbara, will begin serving food to guests outdoors at the end of the week, said CEO and founder Kristopher Parker.
The team on Monday morning was in the process of shifting the emphasis on Third Window cuisine from take-out to serving food safely in the open air, and will be working with all of its pop-up partners toward the same goal. .
Before suspending the home order, three of the state’s five regions – including Santa Barbara County as part of the Southern California region – were under strict rules based on the capacity of the region’s intensive care unit.
California’s regions fell in the order of staying at Newsom’s home when a region had its percentage of the hospital’s ICU capacity drop below 15%.
“The four-week ICU capacity projections for these three regions are above 15%, the limit that allows regions to move out of order,” California Department of Public Health officials said in a statement on Monday.
The order forbade the setting up of outdoor dining, and the restaurants were only open for ready meals.
Patio heaters are ready at the Opal Restaurant on Block 1300 on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. With the state lifting its regional order to stay at home, restaurants can once again serve customers outdoors. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Services and activities, such as al fresco dining, can be resumed with the necessary modifications, unless there are additional restrictions from local jurisdictions, according to CDPH officials.
The Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health issued an order from the local health officer on Monday night outlining specific county restrictions and subsidies for businesses.
Restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, cinemas, museums, zoos and aquariums and personal care services can reopen outdoors with changes in the purple layer.
The county order goes into effect at 8 am on Tuesday.
All companies in Santa Barbara County must follow all state guidelines for their industry and a self-attestation to signal to employees and the public that their business has taken the necessary steps to ensure a safe reopening in the midst of the pandemic.
The county will continue to restrict meetings of any size at this time, the county’s COVID-19 Joint Information Center said in a statement on Monday.
A sign of the times at block 500 on State Street, in downtown Santa Barbara. Starting on Tuesday, restaurants can once again serve customers outdoors. (Photo by Brooke Holland / Noozhawk)
Santa Bárbara will return to the color-coded layer system based on local case rates and test positivity, and will remain in the most restrictive purple layer.
A county is considered purple because it has “widespread” transmission of COVID-19 in the community.
Most internal operations will have to remain closed in Santa Barbara County while in the purple layer.
Dr. Henning Ansorg, a county public health officer, urged people to “please stay the course.”
“Avoid meetings, cover your face and stay two meters from people you don’t live with,” he said on Monday. “We are getting close, but that (COVID-19 pandemic) is not over yet.”
– Brooke Holland, editor of the Noozhawk team, can be reached at . (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.