The first day of dining in an enclosed environment was peaceful at Tudor House, a historic dinner theater on Lake Arrowhead. Before the pandemic, the Prohibition era restaurant accommodated 60 people at the same time for Sunday’s champagne brunch. At around 11 am on Sunday, there were only two.
“It is not a question of when the government says you can open it, it is when people reestablish that routine,” said owner John Connor. “It will be a slow process for people to put on their big boy pants.”
San Bernardino and Orange counties abandoned the more restrictive purple layer of California’s color-coded reopening plan on Sunday, paving the way for restaurants to resume indoor meals at 25% capacity. Los Angeles County will join them on Monday to allow for additional reopens.
Some companies have reported a rapid recovery.
Virginia Ramirez, a receptionist at the Belgian Waffle Works in Lake Arrowhead, said the dining room at the popular family restaurant was closed on Sunday morning. “We are very busy,” she said.
But other establishments said that customers take longer to return.
“At the moment, 90% of the public doesn’t even know we’re open,” said Connor. He said a heavy blizzard made heated tents impractical for restaurants in the resort town in the mountains and unattractive to the area. But he had high hopes for April, when he planned to present a mystery theater show.
“The LA mafia used to own Tudor House, so we can make a Bugsy Siegel, kind of a gangster theme,” he said.
Still, he feared that the government might turn the tide again.
“Restaurants can’t be yo-yoed like this: hire employees, let them go, buy food, throw it away,” said Connor. “Another stoppage is a good possibility, and 25% is not profitable – but, eventually, you have to pay the rent.”
The counties of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino joined 10 others – Contra Costa, Sonoma, Placer, Mendocino, San Benito, Tuolumne, Siskiyou, Amador, Colusa and Mono – in moving to the less restrictive level of red reopening. The 13 counties are home to 17.7 million Californians, meaning that on Monday, when LA County gets the green light, about 45% of the state’s population will be able to eat in a restaurant, visit a museum or do a yoga class at home.
In addition to offering indoor meals, counties in the red layer are allowed to resume screenings at theaters with 25% capacity, welcome students to seventh to 12th series back to campus, reopen in-house gyms with 10% capacity and expand capacity restrictions in non-essential stores and libraries. Museums, zoos and aquariums can also reopen internal operations, with a 25% capacity.
Still, some companies said that despite the relaxation, a more comprehensive reopening was still not worth it.
Heidi Grunt owns the 29 Palms Inn outside Joshua Tree National Park. The park was packed with tourists for the spring flowering, and by 10am on Sunday morning, her phone was ringing off the hook with hopeful hungry people asking about meals indoors.
“This morning, I received at least five calls: ‘Rumor has it that everything should be okay’ and ‘Why aren’t you doing this?’” She said. “But if you can only open with 25%, it is still very challenging to operate like this. It still requires a lot of employees and you still can’t do the business you used to do before. “
Before the pandemic, the hotel and restaurant employed about 65 people. Now, Grunt said, they have dropped to 10.
“We think of ourselves more as a resort since COVID,” she said. “We continue to provide some meals to our hotel guests, but not necessarily to the public.”
While some companies were working to reopen, others were on standby, at least for a few weeks.
Amusement parks can reopen at 15% capacity, with other modifications, as of April 1. Attractions like Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain, some of which reopened for limited food and shopping events, will not fully reopen for visitors – who must be California residents – in March.
Outdoor sports – with fans – and live outdoor performances may also be resumed on April 1, subject to the following limitations: For counties still at the most restricted, purple level, capacity will still be limited to 100 people or less, and participation will be limited regionally. Advance reservations are required and there will be no concessions or sales in the lobby. At the red level, the available capacity will increase and will be limited to 20%, with sales mainly of seat concessions.
LA County health officials – along with the health departments of the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena – said the permission to reopen at the red level would take effect at 12:01 pm on Monday.
LA County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis said the decision to wait until Monday was “really to give companies some time” to properly prepare and modify their operations.
Another 13 counties – San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento, Ventura, San Joaquin, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Kings, Sutter, Yuba, Lake and Tehama – are positioned to join the red layer as early as Wednesday, provided their metrics of coronaviruses remain stable.