Once again restaurants and bars will feel the sting of a COVID shutdown. Dine in service has been scrapped once again, this time for three weeks. It starts today. But, some restaurant owners are not viewing this as the “new normal”, but rather, a “new beginning”.
“As it got cold, we all got concerned, because we slowly saw the numbers tick up and it was kind of inevitable that we would end up here again.”
Here again. Two words most restaurant owners were hoping would not be part of their vocabulary as they refer to “being shut down-again.” But you could say, for James Berg, Managing partner of the Essence Restaurant Group, today’s forced shut down of dine-in service for restaurants and bars, comes at a time of mixed emotions. Of course they’d like to stay open.. but
“All of a sudden we’re struggling with staff, to the point where on a given day we had 2 to 3 people that were getting tested or quarantining, you know it was just impossible to avoid. So it became very difficult to operate the restaurants. So in one way it was kinda of a relief that they made the decision because we were getting to a point, of what are we going to do.”
Berg oversees all the happenings at two popular Grand Rapids restaurants. Bistro Bella Vita and Greenwell. The new order comes from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and calls for three weeks of restrictions for restaurants. Restaurants can still do carry-out, delivery and even dining outside. Berg says instead of looking at this like the “new normal”, he prefers to call it a “new beginning.” He says they’ve worked hard to up their carry out last spring and even developed wine clubs.
“No one wants to do this, but at the end of the day, let’s just be the best carryout business that we can be. We know how to serve people, we’re good at doing that. But, this is something for us to really, learn something new and build our brand through another medium and that’s where we just turn a negative into a positive.—If hope’s your plan you have less, but if you have a hopeful plan you have more. That’s my personal philosophy and I take that in business.”
