In a significant loosening of coronavirus restrictions, Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced that restaurants in yellow-phase Pennsylvania counties as of June 5 — including those in the Lehigh Valley — can begin outdoor dining, with appropriate precautions.
Before his order, restaurants in yellow-phase counties were only allowed to do take-out and delivery business.
Lehigh and Northampton counties currently are in the red phase of Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan and are scheduled to move to yellow June 5.
Guidance issued by his administration for outdoor dining includes that restaurants adhere to occupancy limits, that indoor areas remain closed except for “through traffic,”and that customers being served outside be seated at a table.
On Wednesday, the administration also clarified some of the rules for counties in the green phase, including that up to 250 people can gather but more than that is prohibited, even at concerts, fairs, festivals and sporting events.
But Wolf has said several times that his administration is in talks with various organizations on how large events might safely take place, like a NASCAR event scheduled for late June in Monroe County.
Melissa Bova, vice president of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, called the provision for outdoor dining a good start.
“Before they couldn’t do anything, and now we have something, and that is a step in the right direction,” Bova said.
Currently, 49 counties statewide are in the yellow phase, and 18 of those are set to move to the less-restrictive green phase Friday. On that same day, eight more counties — including Monroe and Schuylkill — will move from red to yellow.
The final 10 counties will move from red to yellow June 5.
Before the announced change, even patrons who came to a restaurant for take-out were not allowed to eat the food anywhere on the property. Bova said the restaurant industry statewide has been seriously hurt by shutdowns.
Bova said 96% of restaurants statewide have had to lay off employees. The number of people who have lost their jobs, at least temporarily, is 322,000, she said.
If a restaurant is open for take-out and delivery and is generating 30% of its normal revenue, it is doing well, she said.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, said he sent a letter from a group of lawmakers to Wolf on Wednesday, asking that restaurants, barbershops and hair salons be allowed to operate at a limited capacity in the yellow phase.
Two restaurants that might benefit from allowing outdoor dining are Notch Modern Kitchen & Bar in Lower Macungie Township and White Orchids Thai Cuisine in Upper Saucon Township. Both have large outdoor dining patios.
It would be another adjustment for Jeff Virojanapa, owner of both. Like many other restaurant owners, he had to switch gears and build a customer base for curbside pickup.
“The key thing for us is to keep people safe, ” Virojanapa said. “We have to roll with and adapt to the changes.”
With curbside business, Notch, which opened less than a year ago, is doing about 25% of the business it was doing before the virus, he estimated, and White Orchids is doing about 40% of its previous business.
The added ability to sell wine, beer and cocktails to go gave them a boost. But with each change, the restaurants have had to adapt to a new way of doing business.
For the Lehigh Valley’s top fine-dining restaurant, outdoor dining would be trickier. Bolete, Salisbury Township’s award-winning restaurant, is based in a historic building at the corner of a three way intersection. There’s not much space to dine outdoors.
“I’d feel way better about outdoor dining, but we are pretty limited on space, ” said Erin Shea, who co-owns the restaurant with her chef husband, Lee Chizmar. “Our parking lot is small and we need to work around it but that’s how it’s always been for Bolete. We are used to being creative.”
They have made their curbside business less of a transaction and more of a dining experience. Customers can pull into the parking lot and enjoy live music while they pick up their food.
It’s a massive shift in how the restaurant has operated for the last 13 years.
“It was like opening up a whole new restaurant” Shea said. “There was no system in place for curbside. You can’t do the same food that we were used to. It was way harder than we thought it would be.”
Morning Call reporter Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com
