To see the quandary facing New Hampshire restaurants Monday, when they will be allowed to offer outdoor table service under strict coronavirus-containing rules, check the area outside Alan’s of Boscawen.
“We think we can get 12 to 15 tables outside,” said Alan Andrian, owner of the restaurant that has been a mainstay on Route 3 for a quarter century. Each table will be under a separate pop-up tent that must be taken in every night so it doesn’t blow away.
“We thought about putting up one big tent, but we figure with the social distancing it might be better to put up individual tents,” said Andrian.
Each table can hold six people and still meet the state’s guidelines, meaning a maximum of 90 people for sit-down service. That’s about one-third the number that can fit in the restaurant itself, and no business can succeed for long with one-third of its normal revenue.
That’s the reason some restaurants aren’t even going to try outdoor service.
“We have our own patio but with tables six feet away, it only has three tables. And the bar, we cannot open,” said Jack Zhu, manager of Chen Yang Li in Bow. “You cannot open with just three tables.”
He noted that the restaurant does not have a license for outside seating away from its patio.
“When the whole restaurant can open, we can open,” he said. Until then, the Chen Yang Li will continue with its take-out service.
“Obviously as many of them that can do outdoor dining are trying to do outdoor dining. Unfortunately that is a small percentage of all restaurants – maybe one-third?” wrote Mike Somers, CEO of New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association, in an email response to the Monitor. “And while all are hopeful that they will be able to do some business it will not be enough to stabilize their businesses – they will just be losing money at a slightly slower rate.”
One restaurant that is pushing to take advantage of the loosened rules for restaurants is El Rodeo at 22 Loudon Road. The Mexican restaurant has expanded its outdoor dining area and built another space on the other side of the restaurant, adding more than a dozen tables that can be handled within social distancing guidelines.
“Last weekend we were here to clean up the area, make it a little bit nicer,” owner Gilbert Reyes said Thursday. “We brought in 6 ½ yards of gravel. … We’re trying to get ready for our regular customers.”
Reyes said take-out business has gone pretty, to the point that he had to put in another phone line, and hasn’t had to lay off anybody.
Many restaurants on Loudon Road are keeping a wait-and-see attitude, even when they have room to expand on their property.
Both the Red Blazer and the Windmill, two Concord institutions, will be putting tables outside where people can sit and eat the food they get at the drive-up window, but won’t be providing wait staff for them, at least not for the time being although it might change.
“This is very much in the air,” said Kim Vincent, manager at Red Blazer.
Downtown, it’s not clear how many restaurants that lack their own outdoor space will taking advantage of loosened rules for putting tables on sidewalks and in private parking areas.
Further complicating the situation is that under the first stage of re-opening, outdoor table service can be offered only to customers who have made an advance reservation – no walk-ups. Servers have to wear masks, and while customers can go inside to use bathrooms they have to meet new standards for crowding and hand sanitizer.
One idea put forward by Luca Paris of Luca’s Mediterranean Cafe in Keene’s Central Square, according to the Keene Sentinel, is to create QR codes that guests can scan with smartphones to call up a digital menu, eliminating the need to distribute physical copies that need to be sanitized for the next guest.
Despite all the problems, Alan Andrian thinks the effort is worth it.
“I look at it this way: if we do what they tell us to do and it works fine, hopefully they’ll let us get inside sooner. If we follow the rules and customers follow the rules, and there’s not a spike in viruses, no reason we can’t open,” he said. “That’s what we will need.”
(David Brooks can be reached at 360-3313, dbrooks@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
