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On Friday, for the first time in more than two months, Vermont restaurants were permitted to reopen with limited outdoor seating and other restrictions. But that doesn’t mean they all did.
Some are still closed and say the state’s new guidelines, aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19, make it impossible for them to cover their operating costs.
Keith Paxman, co-owner of three restaurants in Barre and Northfield, doesn’t have outside seating and would need a permit from the city to put tables outside.
“Even if we could do outdoor seating, we’d only be able to do three to five tables, especially when they have to be spaced 10 feet apart,” said Paxman.
“Until we are allowed to have 50% (occupancy) in restaurants, it’s going to be very, very difficult for us to open up on any type of basis without the risk of losing more money than we have in 10 weeks,” he said.
On March 17, Gov. Phil Scott closed Vermont’s restaurants and bars to everything except takeout as the state began instituting emergency measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. They’ve stayed closed or limited to takeout while manufacturing, distribution, construction, and then other businesses have received the go-ahead over the last month to start operating again.
On May 20, Scott announced restaurants could reopen with outdoor seating only, and with an array of other restrictions, on May 22.
But restaurant owners have said they need more time to study the guidance and prepare before they can do so.
Among other things, they will be required to take reservations for all seatings, and to collect customers’ names and contact information, holding on to it for 30 days in the event of an outbreak.
And they have a lot of questions for state officials.
“It’s unclear if a fast food restaurant who had tables outside that were spaced socially distant would need to provide a reservation scheme,” said Sue Bette, who owns Bluebird Barbecue in Burlington. Bette has co-founded an emerging group called the Vermont Restaurant Coalition.
She said she didn’t have a clear opening date yet for her restaurant, but it wouldn’t be May 22.
“We are looking to plan for business activity in June,” she said.
Under the state’s guidelines, staff must also make sure that diners seated at a single table don’t come from more than two different households.
Matt Willey, the owner of two restaurants in Bennington, Ramuntos and the Avocado Pit, said most restaurants won’t be able to follow the new rules.
“It just makes it impossible,” Willey said. “In my mind, I feel like the restaurants were complaining so much about ‘What are we going to do?’ that they tried to give us something just to be nice.”
“But in reality, the majority of the restaurants aren’t going to be able to keep up with what they’re asking us to do,” he said.
Willey is reopening one of his restaurants, the Avocado Pit, where he expects he will be able to seat about 30 customers outdoors.
But he doesn’t think outdoor dining will be profitable in the long term. For now, though, he wants to give it a try and use money he has received from the federal Paycheck Protection Program to rehire some staff.
“For the short term, I just want to get open. We’ve got the PPP money so I want to put some people back to work,” Willey said.
“I’m giving it a shot for a month and if I’m losing too much money then I will just close it.”
Other restaurant owners have said the requirements for having PPP loans converted into grants make it very difficult for restaurants to use the government program.
Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, is part of the new restaurant coalition. He plans to open outdoor dining at his 3 Squares Cafe in early June.
He noted that most other businesses aren’t being asked to keep the contract tracing records expected of restaurants — though lodging establishments, including campgrounds, have also been instructed to do it.
“Large supermarkets have thousands of people coming through and they’re not taking down names and phone numbers,” Birong said.
Asked about the contact tracing requirement at the governor’s press conference May 22, Health Commissioner Mark Levine described the issue as “a matter of complexity.”
“Hordes of people are entering and leaving supermarkets all of the time,” he said. “Their contact time interval is relatively brief with one another and the store, compared to restaurants.”
Levine added that because restaurants must take reservations, they already have a means of collecting personal information. He said restaurants are unique because people are interacting closely with one another, often without wearing a mask in order to eat and drink.
“It’s a higher risk proposition that dining in a restaurant would have, compared to walking in and out of a store,” he said, adding that the requirement isn’t going to be enforced.
“I think it’s more of a civil responsibility and something we would regard as low-intensity for them to resume,” he said.
Restaurants are big business in Vermont. Local restaurants contribute more than $500 million to Vermont’s GDP, according to the state Agency for Commerce and Community Development. About 4,500 restaurants are licensed with the Vermont Department of Health, and, of these, 2,300 have seating licenses.
Leo P. O’Reilly, who runs a business consulting practice in South Burlington with several restaurants as clients, said most restaurant owners don’t have a clear idea yet of what to expect.
“People are scared; they’re not sure what’s going to happen and when this is going to end,” he said. He doesn’t know anyone who has decided to close their business for good. But if they start missing important holidays like the Fourth of July, he said, he expects to start seeing that happen at the end of the season.
“Right now, they have some money in the bank; there is some assistance available that is going to carry them for a few months and get them through the summer no matter what happens,” he said.
“But if sales don’t improve they have no way to keep going.”
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