By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews.com
Yachats restaurants went to takeout only or closed Wednesday to comply with Gov. Kate Brown’s two-week statewide “freeze” on many activities – and they’re not happy about it.
Not only are owners losing business, but they say the freeze is resulting in a second round of worker layoffs this year when there is no additional federal aid to boost any state unemployment benefits.
Reduced to offering only take-out food through Dec. 2, restaurants face uncertainty at best and many expect the new “freeze” to last longer. At least one restaurant owner is just closing the doors to cut losses.
“Will we stay open? Nope,” said Don Lindsley, who owns Leroy’s Blue Whale with his wife, Angie. “I don’t know why there’s a ‘war’ on restaurants and bars.”
He echoed the view of several local owners — and of statewide industry representatives — that the governor’s two-week freeze unfairly targets restaurants and bars.
As in most of the nation, soaring cases of COVID-19 in Oregon prompted the two-week shutdown, which also closes gyms, indoor and outdoor recreational facilities. Pharmacies and retail stores are limited to a maximum capacity of 75 percent, and social gatherings are limited to six people from no more than two households.
“I’m going to be laying off six people for the two weeks,” said Robert Anthony, owner of Luna Sea restaurant in Yachats. “They’ll be without income, and most likely not able to get unemployment benefits for that short amount of time.”
Luna Sea will remain open for take-out only; if the freeze extends beyond Dec. 2, “We’ll carry on with to-go food and probably lay off more people,” Anthony said.
The Adobe restaurant closed its restaurant and lounge after Tuesday night’s dinner. On Wednesday it will begin offering takeout food only.
The freeze and resulting closure “means the majority of my staff is getting laid off… about 20 people,” said general manager Anthony Muirhead. “I don’t want to sound like I don’t care about the pandemic, because I do, but if the government is going to force some people to be unemployed, they should have some kind of safety net.”
Concerned over employees’ fates if the freeze is extended, Muirhead said there are “no extra unemployment benefits” now, compared to the extra payments available during the first pandemic lockdown.
“If you look at the numbers of cases reported, the hospitality industry is definitely getting picked on,” Muirhead argued. “We’re prepared to do our part, but not at the sacrifice of our employees not being taken care of; we’re not in a position to just do it ourselves.”
The Adobe will still offer its traditional Thanksgiving meal as a take-out option; diners are urged to call and make advance take-out reservations.
Hospitality industry complains of targeting
Local sentiments about being “targeted” reflect industry positions at the state level. The Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Independent Restaurant Alliance of Oregon each wrote the governor to express displeasure of being “targeted” for closure and asked for a variety of aid to help their members survive the pandemic.
“Knowing small social gatherings are the focal point for the transmission of this virus, it is incredibly disappointing to see our industry once again targeted and to know bar and restaurant operators are having their employees’ and their own livelihoods put at risk,” said Jason Brandt, President and CEO for the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association.
The two organizations are asking the state to provide financial assistance to struggling restaurants and bars, cut state fees, extend a moratorium on commercial evictions, speed unemployment claims, and make COVID-19 tests readily available to all.
In its letter, the restaurant alliance said before the start of the pandemic, the restaurant industry employed about nine percent of the state’s workforce and that an estimated 75 percent of Oregon’s more than 10,000 restaurants and bars are in danger of closing permanently.
On Tuesday, Brown conceded to one point – announcing the state will allocate $55 million in financial assistance to businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Each county will receive a base of $500,000 plus a per capita allocation of the remainder of the funds and each county will be responsible for managing funding applications. Brown’s office said financial assistance will be prioritized for businesses in the hospitality industry and others hurt by the freeze order.
Meanwhile, retail stores remain (mostly) open for business. A day after the freeze began, Kim McLaughlin of The Laughing Crab gallery in Yachats was contacted by a woman who assumed the shop was closed, but called just to make sure. The new state regulations merely limit grocery and retail stores to 75 percent of customer capacity.
Not sure of survival
If the freeze is extended, how will local restaurants survive? That’s a big question mark, of course.
“Everybody’s trying to handle this as best they can,” said James Kerti, director of the Yachats Visitor Center and lead marketing contractor for the city. “What I’m hearing from restaurant and other business owners is, ‘We don’t know what to expect.’ That’s one of the big challenges everybody is facing right now — the level of uncertainty.”
Muirhead and Lindsley are not the only ones to expect the governor’s freeze to extend through the Christmas holidays.
“I’ll bet money that they close us down around the Christmas holidays,” said Linda Hetzler, owner of The Drift Inn restaurant and motel.
On Monday, she sat in the restaurant with kitchen manager Toni Mason “trying to come up with a plan for what we’re going to do now.”
Before Wednesday’s freeze “We were having a lot of people order to-go for Thanksgiving, and some dine in.” But in-person dining is no longer an option.
Hetzler was already planning to close the restaurant for about 10 days after Thanksgiving. But now that plan is also in question.
In the pandemic shutdown earlier this year, employees could collect extra unemployment benefits. “Now, we don’t have that,” said Hetzler, “and people may have to survive for basically a month on no income.”
In conjunction with its lodging business, the Drift Inn employs about 55 people. Hetzler and Mason are figuring out “things for them to do so we can keep them working.”
Hetzler doesn’t necessarily feel that the freeze is unfair, or wrongly targets Lincoln County which has fewer coronavirus cases than other Oregon counties.
“The governor has a really hard job,” balancing pandemic and economic concerns, she said. “As a tourist-based industry here, we have people coming in from other areas. We certainly don’t want our residents, especially our older folks who live here, to be catching anything. I respect those folks who are trying to help all of us.”
She urged residents to “Shop locally, buy locally, and jump in for take-out.”
More take-out options are available at Yachats Brewing + Farmstore, which had its last day of the year Sunday for distanced dining. Both craft brews and foods are available Thursdays through Sundays for pick-up. Owner Nathan Bernard said the freeze forced him to lay off 10 employees, leaving a handful of core staffers, including himself, to carry on. Like other owners, he said he expects current restrictions to extend through the Christmas holidays.
An offer to share food
At the Sea Note Restaurant and Lounge, manager Brian Dimiceli reported that the venue’s full menu will be available for take-out Wednesdays through Sundays. The same holds for its sister restaurant, the Salty Dawg in Waldport.
Lay-offs?
“Oh, yeah — it will be me and two other people working; that’s it.” The rest of the 14-member staff will have to be laid off.
Asked if he thought the hospitality industry was being targeted, he said “I don’t see how two weeks is going to help when you have everything else open except bars, restaurants and gyms. People who follow the rules should be allowed to go out and do what they want to do.”
While he encouraged residents to buy take-out meals, he made a different offer to those who are struggling financially.
“If somebody needs food and can’t afford to eat, I’d be more than willing to share some food with them. If they’re hungry, we’ll feed them.”
Dimiceli and most other restaurant owners shared a hope that the pandemic will ease.
“I’m hoping this passes over, and we find a vaccine and get our lives back on track,” he said.
- Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com
The Governor is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t tighten restrictions because of the increase in cases and hospitalization and death rates state wide. Unfortunately any indoor situation where people are sitting unmasked as in restaurants and bars are share the air situations that are plain and simple a big risk. All it takes is one of those unmasked people to be infected and you have infection spread. Those laid off should get help. The federal government passed the heroes act back in mid May which would have provided for businesses and individuals alike but our Senate leadership has blocked it claiming it is too generous. That is where people affected need to focus their anger.