Employees at Blackwall Hitch made final preparations Friday afternoon before they were allowed to serve customers for the first time in months. The fine-dining restaurant is one of many across the city that began offering outside dining as of 5 p.m. after county and city leaders announced they could do so with certain restrictions.
Soon after County Executive Steuart Pittman’s announcement, the restaurant began taking reservations for their 10 outdoor patio tables, said Michael Wesser, general manager of Blackwall Hitch Annapolis.
The reservations are staggered to ensure social distancing is maintained but so far everyone has been understanding of the limitations restaurants will be under, Wesser said.
“It sounds like everybody just wants to kind of get out in a safe environment, and have a glass of wine, be waited on, get something that they haven’t been able to get at their house for a while.”
On Main Street, Annapolis resident Jennifer Preston took a sip of an orange crush right as the clock struck 5 p.m. outside O’Brien’s Oyster Bar and Seafood Tavern. It was the first drink the restaurant served under the city’s relaxed guidelines, Preston’s server said.
Down the street at Middleton Tavern, the first live music in the city began playing around the same time, the first that had happened since the pandemic began, said Bridgett Rheem, who runs social media for the restaurant. Jerry Hardesty, Middleton’s owner, said the reopening was “easy” thanks to a veteran staff who were able to ensure the place was sanitized and within health guidelines.
Nearby, Mary Ellen Scherl and Jerry Burney, of Virginia, enjoyed the live tunes and a cocktail. The couple said they happened to be stopping in for the night and weren’t aware Annapolis restaurants were opening Friday.
“We just lucked out,” Scherl said.
The first weekend will be a learning experience, Wesser said of his staff who have been planning for all aspects of serving under new health and safety guidelines, from how they will interact with customers when they arrive and when they leave to taking orders and serving food.
“We want to just blow our guests away tonight,” Wesser said. “We’re gonna offer the best experience but, again, that safety measure has to be there.”
For example, servers plan to gather feedback from guests about their experience to learn how to better serve them during the circumstances brought on by the pandemic.
Under state guidelines, patrons must be seated at least six feet away from each other — excluding family members — and establishments maintain additional sanitation practices like cleaning multi-use menus after each use. Employees are required to use masks and gloves and undergo temperature screening.
“It’s just getting into the habit of changing gloves regularly, hitting the sanitizer. How long is 20 seconds to wash your hands, what does that feel like, you know?” Wesser said. “While we’re always doing those things, you’re under a microscope right now. And we’ve got to be really careful about just making those habits.”
Brian Bolter, owner of Red Red Wine and Dry 85, has one of the largest outdoor seating areas on Main Street with about 20 total seats between the two establishments, he said. The wine bar has been closed since restaurants were initially ordered to close in March, Bolter said, but on Friday, he plans to use its outdoor seating for patrons of Dry 85.
“We have to be creative because downtown Annapolis is so small,” Bolter said. “And there’s such limited outdoor seating for us in the first place.”
One of the first tables to be served at Dry 85, was Rachel and Ed Kennedy and their son Jack, of Arnold. The family was planning to get ice cream but the prospect of eating a meal that wasn’t carryout was too good to pass up, Rachel Kennedy said.
“We were going stir crazy, it’s been months since we left our house.”
Though he still expects to lose money by offering outdoor dining, Bolter said he is already preparing to open indoor service once it’s announced.
“That’s how we’ve handled this from the beginning,” he said. “We’ve already done Plexiglas dividers on our bars. We have plexiglass dividers in Dry 85 in between the booths. So we are just trying to stay one step ahead of the governor, as long as he sticks to his schedule, and he’s direct in his communications, then it seems like we can move forward.”
On Friday, city officials and a cadre of local business leaders discussed the implementation of recovery zones, areas across the city that will be closed to traffic to allow restaurants and retailers to add outdoor seating capacity. The zones would be in places like Main Street and West Street, Maryland Ave and Market Street, as well as other business districts in the city.
The exact boundaries and locations of those zones are still being ironed out, but there are plans to hold a Dining Under The Stars event on West Street and a full closure of Main Street on Wednesday evening, said Mitchelle Stephenson, city spokeswoman. No streets were closed Friday.
Bolter serves as the recovery zone ambassador for upper Main Street, he said and is responsible for assessing the needs of all the nearby businesses who hope to utilize the zones once they are approved. His hope is the city provides equitable standards for each zone to help the recovery effort.
“We want to be a part of it and we feel like everybody should have the opportunity to have a Dining Under The Stars to increase our capacity on the street,” he said.
