Published: 6/21/2020 6:01:02 PM
AMHERST — Restaurants in the state can finally welcome back customers for indoor dining beginning Monday after enduring a months-long ban issued as part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s emergency order to slow the spread of COVID-19, but some eateries and residents in the area have mixed feelings about whether it’s safe enough to reopen.
Baker announced Friday that the next step of his economic reopening plan would begin Monday — two weeks after the green light was given for restaurants to offer outdoor dining and for retail stores to reopen with some restrictions. In addition to indoor table service, this next step will also allow close-contact personal services such as nail salons to reopen and relax capacity restrictions for office spaces. There are no capacity restrictions for indoor dining, but there are social distancing rules.
Hospitalizations due to the disease in Massachusetts, which are now at 994 across the entire state, have continued to trend downward; Hampshire County has one of the lowest cumulative total of COVID-19 cases compared to other counties in the state at 941. The pandemic is likely to have a major impact on the restaurant industry in the state, possibly wiping out roughly a quarter of the state’s eateries, according to a prediction by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association reported Saturday by The Boston Globe.
Rasif Rafiq, owner of Bistro 63 in Amherst, said he’s been providing curbside takeout for months and outside dining for the past few weeks. He said he’s planning on letting customers choose whether they want to eat inside beginning Monday, but says he’s not putting full stock into the hope that customers will take him up on that offer.
“I predict that 80 percent of our customers will want to eat outside,” Rafiq said.
Rafiq said he’ll seat customers in his front dining room first — it can normally seat 52 people, Rafiq said, but he’s capping that for now at only 16 people at four tables. If those become taken, Rafiq said he’d use a larger room in the back used for larger groups — that space can normally hold 120 people for standard cocktail parties, but the restaurant will seat it for 15 to 20 people at about six tables. He already has six tables on the street and six on his patio that he’s been using.
Tables inside will be spaced out 10 feet away from one another for social distancing, Rafiq said, adding that he considers himself lucky that he has so much space to use. The restaurateur said he’s been going far beyond recommendations made by the state for indoor dining, pointing to the 10 feet of distancing, hand sanitizer on tables, disposable menus and other staff protocol.
“I am really trusting in the authorities in believing that they know what they’re doing,” Rafiq said. “They are talking to the health experts.”
In South Hadley, Tina Huang, manager of Ichiban Chinese & Japanese Restaurant on Memorial Drive, had a different take on the situation, saying that the store would likely wait until July before offering indoor dining. The restaurant has been operating solely on curbside pickup, she said, and business been slower than usual. When Ichiban does decide to open up, there will be only five or six tables available, Huang said.
Huang said the eatery decided not to open starting Monday because some employees are worried about working in proximity to customers, who may be asymptomatic. Huang noted that states including Florida and Texas have seen climbing COVID-19 case numbers as they reopen their economies and added that she wants to see what happens in Massachusetts before jumping to reopen.
“We just want to make sure everybody’s safe,” Huang said. “That is more important than growing the business.”
Relaxing on a park bench near Amherst Common on Saturday afternoon was Christine Martell of Palmer, who said she would consider eating inside a restaurant if tables and serving stations were properly distanced, but that she’d probably hold off for a bit so restaurants can have time to revamp their operations in preparation for indoor dining.
Sitting on the grass underneath a tree a few feet away from Martell was Tim Reddington, 28, and Amanda Carrier, 25, both from Monson, who said they would likely exercise caution before rushing to eat inside a restaurant.
“I haven’t really gone to anything, for the most part — except for the grocery store a few times and farmers markets because they’re outdoors,” Reddington said. He had not heard of the governor’s announcement and said he would “probably not” go to a restaurant.
“I’ve been doing my job in person so I’m probably a bit more comfortable being around people,” Carrier said. “But it still feels like we’re just reopening for economic reasons more than safety … so it does feel a little weird to me.”
Just across the street from the Amherst Town Common, Austin Amato, general manager of Pasta E Basta, said his restaurant — which has been serving only takeout and delivery — will wait a week or two before setting up a handful of tables on their second floor dining space.
But Amato said the decision to eventually reopen indoor dining is a bit of a Catch-22: He’s concerned about keeping staff and customers safe, but at the same time, “we can’t afford to stay just doing takeout — it’s not feasible.”
“We’re fortunate for takeout because that’s allowed us to keep paying our staff and keep paying our bills,” Amato said. “But you can only go on like that for so long.”
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.
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