Columbus has thrown a lifeline to its downtown restaurants in the form of flexible outdoor seating in the hopes of keeping the area’s vibrancy intact as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
“You can kind of sense a little bit of a shift in people’s attitudes to wanting to get back out there, but yet still distancing and being safe,” said Kurt Schwarze, co-owner of 4th Street Bar and Grill, one of the restaurants that is being allowed to expand out into Fourth Street for additional outdoor seating on weekends.
The Columbus Board of Works has allowed the 4th Street Bar and Grill, along with several other restaurants nearby, to add additional outdoor seating and close the street on weekend nights from 4 p.m. to midnight, to allow bringing tables and chairs outdoors for customers.
“It’s been great,” Schwarze said of the first weekend of the outdoor seating. “To date, the weather has been perfect too. So we haven’t really had any hot days or rainy days since we’ve opened that. So people are really enjoying that. And again, it allows people to be separated a little bit better in fresh air. And you know, we’ve had a very good response to that. It’s still quite slow during the week and during lunches especially, because there aren’t a whole lot of office workers returning to downtown yet. But we’ve been pleased with the turnout.”
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Schwarze said that he’s holding back from opening his bar seating at half capacity, even though he is allowed to do so. There are a few stools available at the bar, though, for any single customers who don’t want a whole table to themselves.
“We’re still just trying to make sure that people feel safe, and we’re doing everything we can to have our staff and our customers be safe,” Schwarze said. He added that “the biggest promotion that any restaurant can do right now is try to maintain a safe environment.”
“The government can’t bail everybody out, the landlords can’t give people free rein forever and so forth and so on, so the only real solution is to try to get back to some sense of normality,” he said. “And right now, we still have a virus to deal with, so we need to see what we can do getting back some sense of normality but at the same time being safe.”
Sometimes, “normal” seems like a far-off dream. Still, despite having closed Joe Willy’s Burger Bar for about a month, owner John Wilhelmi said his business is “right around the corner from being back to normal.”
“The previous employees, for the most part, came back to work, which was a good thing,” Wilhelmi said. “And at first there was a little bit of skittishness from the employees and a little bit of the same from the customers, but they’re all coming back pretty normal. So I’m pretty satisfied so far.”
Like Schwarze, Wilhelmi noted the ongoing loss of lunchtime business from downtown workers, many of whom have been working from home since March, and not eating out for lunch.
“Cummins was a very good supporter of our restaurant,” Wilhelmi said. “We’re close to them, and I believe they’re still restricted quite a bit themselves. So we’re definitely feeling their absence. But, I made a comment the other day, I said, ‘It’s amazing to me we’re as busy as we are with Cummins and people not coming in like they used to.’”
The loss of downtown workers for lunch has also been difficult for Luciana’s Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. Operations manager Debbie Westlake Bosworth said that before the pandemic, the Columbus Luciana’s was unique in that lunchtime was its busiest period of the day. Now, without Cummins workers, those rush hours have slowed significantly. She also said that without community events such as street parties, the downtown area feels “dead.”
In addition to decreases in income, sales and customers for the restaurant, there are also additional costs, she said. Supplying carryout containers was costly, and now meat prices have seen a drastic increase.
“We do a tacos asada, and that is a ribeye cut of meat. And the pricing on that has more than doubled per pound,” Bosworth said. “We’re not passing that on to our customers at this point, because, you know, business is down anyway. So those items are really expensive, and we don’t make any money on it.”
Like other downtown restaurants, Luciana’s is using its outdoor seating, which it already had on The Commons exterior, though the need to space out tables means fewer tables can fit on the patio.
“We are fine, per se, but we’re not making any money,” Bosworth said. “We’re staying above board or afloat, but we’re not making any money.”
In spite of that, Bosworth said Luciana’s, which has the largest restaurant space in The Commons, is “going to make it.”
“You know, we’ve got five restaurants,” she said. “So it’s been a challenging time, however, you know, we have made the adjustment. We’ve changed what we could and how we could so that we could provide our same quality of food to our customers. And actually, we feel great. I mean, we feel so blessed.”
Nearby, Henry’s Social Club reopened this week, after having been closed to dine-in and takeout options since March. Reopening was June 16.
The city has approved the restaurant’s request to have additional outdoor seating not only on its own sidewalk, but also in front of other business properties on Washington Street including 429, 435 and 421 addresses.
“It is my understanding that they have spoken with each of the owners of the property along there and worked out details,” said Executive Director of Public Works and City Engineer Dave Hayward.
City Attorney Alan Whitted, whose own office is located at 431 Washington St., said the additional seating will be limited to one table close to the curb in front of each property and will therefore not interfere with business at these properties.
According to board member Mary K. Ferdon, the restaurant will be able to use this additional seating from June 23 to Oct. 31.
Columbus restaurants are not alone in struggling to survive the pandemic. According to an impact survey by the National Restaurant Association, more than 8 million restaurant employees have “been laid off or furloughed since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.” The survey predicted that the industry nationwide would “sustain $240 billion in losses by the end of 2020.”
However, as states begin to reopen, there is a glimmer of hope. Since Indiana is now in stage four of Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s reopening plan, restaurants are allowed to have customers dine in at 75% capacity and open bar seating at 50% capacity.
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Now that Indiana is in stage four, restaurants are allowed to open dining room service at 75% capacity with social distancing and open bar seating at 50% capacity with social distancing. However, they must still “use tools to screen employees daily” and wear face coverings.
Once Indiana enters stage five (which is projected to start on July 4), restaurants and bars will be allowed to “operate at full capacity.”
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The Columbus Visitors Center is promoting downtown dining on a new web page that highlights the options.
Find it at https://columbus.in.us/downtowndining/.
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