Monday was a day that Shirley Levesque had circled on her calendar, as it was the first day in a long time she could join her friends for lunch at a booth at Café Déjà Vu.
“We looked forward to June 15,” Levesque said. That date was the first that restaurants were permitted to seat customers indoors since Gov. Sununu issued his Stay At Home order in mid-March.
Restaurants were permitted to open for take-out-only for the beginning of the shutdown, which was ordered to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. In recent weeks, eateries were allowed to serve patrons at outside tables but couldn’t use their dining rooms.
That changed on Monday, and it was a welcome return to normal for local restaurants.
“In the beginning, it was not good. That was really, really hard,” said Brenda Martel, owner of Café Déjà Vu. Her restaurant serves breakfast and lunch, primarily for dine-in customers. They did some takeout before, but it was never a large part of their business.
She learned that takeout was expensive, as she had to pay for the containers, silverware and other items that walk out the door with every order. When they were allowed to seat people outside, they had to find space in their parking lot, and in an adjacent lot that Martel also owns, to set up some tables. But her usual day starts with the 5:30 a.m. crowd who come in for coffee and breakfast, and people don’t want to eat outside at dawn.
“We have so many loyal customers that really kept us going,” Martel said. Some of her employees proved their loyalty, too, by continuing to work despite the business’s struggles.
With those difficult times in the rearview mirror, Martel said, “People are excited.”
At The Brickfront, a bar and restaurant on Church Street, general manager Kyle Mignanelli said he was also excited to welcome patrons indoors.
“We’re ready to be open again, letting people back in and getting back to normalcy,” Mignanelli said. The Brickfront was closed on Monday, and won’t open again until Wednesday evening, but he was in his dining room yesterday, taping off every other booth and moving tables so that they were an appropriate distance apart, all per state guidelines.
The Brickfront will lose capacity indoors because of the changes, but with the outdoor seating that they added this spring, they will be at nearly the same capacity as they were prior to the pandemic.
That’s a similar situation at the Water Street Café. Ted Roy, owner, said he thinks that on a busy weekend day, he’ll be able to serve about 90% as many patrons as he normally would. They’ve added some outdoor seating, and haven’t removed any indoor tables.
Instead of moving all tables six feet apart, Roy and his staff will place “Reserved” placards on adjacent tables when customers sit down.
On Monday afternoon, the outdoor option was more appealing to a group of guests from the Seacoast who drove to the Lakes Region to do some hiking. First, though, the three of them – Catherine Brown, Theo Axinte and Andijana Kulevska – stopped for a bite at Water Street. Brown, who lives in Hampton, picked the lunch spot.
“I used to live up here, this is one of my favorite places to go,” Brown said, as her plate of eggs benedict arrived. “I grew up coming here.”
Roy said his business has been doing “alright” this spring. The volume of orders has remained steady, but he’s had to deal with additional costs, such as acquiring the tents and outdoor furniture and paying for the supplies and labor to keep the restaurant’s surfaces sanitized.
He said he was surprised by how busy he was on Monday morning, when people could again order breakfast and enjoy it at a table indoors.
“I think people are so sick of this, they want to get out and enjoy some normalcy in their life,” Roy said. “We will survive this, but it only happens through good support by the community.”
The restaurants need their diners, and the diners feel much the same way, according to the occupants of one booth at Café Déjà Vu.
Betty Dascoulias and Jeannie Pecknold joined Levesque, who said she missed “the togetherness” that they enjoyed. The three of them lingered in their booth although their lunch was eaten and the bill was paid.
There were tables available outside but, Pecknold said, “It wasn’t sunny enough,” so they came indoors. “And the people are so nice here,” she added.
“I missed coming here,” Dascoulias said.
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