Variant not hitting restaurant business hard – yet
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Dog House Diner regular Joe Meyer enjoys coffee following his breakfast earlier this week. A Washington native, Meyer said he’s been coming to the diner for breakfast and “too many” cups of coffee for years.
Between putting in and delivering an order to a table, Jocelyn Cox refills a diner’s cup of joe. Cox has worked on and off at the Dog House Diner for three years.
Katherine Mansfield/ Observer-Reporter
An uptick in COVID-19 cases, thanks to the delta variant, has taken a bite out of business at the Dog House Diner. But it’s been a small nip, according to the manager.
“We’re still getting by, obviously,” said Alexis, who declined to provide her last name during a telephone call Wednesday. “It hasn’t been horrible, but you can see a little difference.”
Six weeks ago, cases were plummeting and good times were beginning to roll again across the region. Restaurants – an industry battered throughout the pandemic – were drawing large, enthusiastic crowds once more.
Then the variant reared its ugly head, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend mask-wearing for everyone older than 2, and causing schools and businesses to revive and retool coronavirus protocols. This latest surge is affecting dining locations – such as the Dog House – again.
“We’ve been OK, but I believe things have been a little slower,” Alexis said, referring to the variant factor. “We were doing well for a second, now we’ve gone back to masks. People are getting a little scared and going into a cubby hole.”
The diner, on Jefferson Avenue in Washington, is requiring masks and ordering staff to disinfect surfaces between visits.
Jennifer Adamson, sole proprietor of Kiln to Table Pottery and Eatery in Waynesburg, knows the vagaries of the pandemic well. She opened the bistro-style restaurant end of her dual operation in 2019, five months before the coronavirus encroached on Southwestern Pennsylvania.
She said the eatery has navigated ebbs and flows from the beginning: starting strong, experiencing a 25% to 35% dropoff in sales during the statewide shutdown last year, and rebounding to early levels when virus cases nosedived in May and June.
Adamson said business has remained steady since, but wonders what may happen if mandates are put into place.
Her new business was not in existence long enough to be eligible for grants or Paycheck Protection Program funding, but the owner persevered and did not have to lay off employees or shut down the eatery.
“We had to create business models to increase our growth. We went to outdoor seating and added to our takeout area,” said Adamson, whose restaurant shares a building with her pottery business, 84 Mug Co. – which she moved to South Richhill Street from the former WashArts building in Washington.
Until the variant started to gain momentum, dashing the hopes of an earlier escape from the pandemic, Michael Passalacqua was upbeat about a revival of the restaurant industry.
“Everyone was starting to breathe easier and looking forward to getting their staff up and their sales up,” said the owner and operator of Angelo’s Restaurant in North Franklin Township. “Nobody knows what is going to happen next, so we’re looking at the possibility that all of this may happen again.”
Sales, he said, are “not currently an issue. Since we’ve been open 100%, sales have been good.”
Staffing hasn’t been.
“My issue, like everyone else, is the staffing situation – having enough people to get the job done,” Passalacqua said. “Now that’s probably going to get worse because of the fear of COVID going up.
“The general public,” he added, “would never understand how difficult this is. You advertise for jobs and nobody applies. Right now, I’m trying to hire and am interviewing, but I’d say 75% of the people who were scheduled for an interview have not shown up.”
Being short staffed has had a deleterious impact on this longtime family operation, Passalacqua said. He has had to cut operating hours and deal with customers who are served pasta long after they’ve finished their salad.
Passalacqua said a large number of restaurant owners in Southwestern Pennsylvania are dealing with staffing shortages.
Through much of the pandemic, Passalacqua has been an outspoken critic of what he describes as “government intrusion.” He was vehemently opposed to indoor occupancy limits mandated by Gov. Tom Wolf to mitigate spread of the outbreak, and now is concerned that governing bodies in Pennsylvania could adopt New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio’s edict that restaurants serve only customers who have been vaccinated.
“New York City is requiring business owners to be vaccine police,” he said. “This puts businesses in a very trying situation – to enforce another person’s rules.”
The emergence of the variant likewise is putting businesses in a trying situation – restaurants foremost among them.