California's restaurants coping with 'roller-coaster' ride of rules

After several months of uncertainty, Brittney Valles, co-owner of Guerrilla Tacos, a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, was finally ready to welcome diners back inside. She devoted two weeks to training staff and bought personal protective equipment.

"We had five glorious hours of being open, and we had all of our staff back, and we were prepared to get in full swing again," she said. "Unfortunately, we had to reclose that same day."

In response to the rapidly rising number of novel coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered on July 1 that restaurants in 19 of the state's hardest-hit counties, including Los Angeles County, must end indoor operations. That order was followed by a new directive on July 13 that extended the indoor dining restriction to all counties.

Restaurant owners in California and nationwide have dealt with a decline in sales, ever-increasing rents and often confusing guidelines as officials have tightened restrictions to contain the pandemic.

According to the National Restaurant Association, a Washington-based trade group that represents more than 500,000 restaurant businesses, the industry is on track to lose $240 billion in sales in 2020.

Since the pandemic hit, sales at Valles' Mexican restaurant have plummeted 25 percent, even with a solid takeout business, she told China Daily. She also had to furlough staff.

Valles then decided to open a small coffee shop next door and hired several workers for that. Despite the coronavirus disruptions, business at the takeout-only coffee shop is going full steam. It usually sees around 60 to 70 patrons in the first three hours it is open.

But the biggest challenge for Valles has been to adapt to the new rules enacted by officials during the rapidly evolving pandemic.

"Every month or every week, there's a new guideline that we have to follow, or there are new numbers of cases, so then they closed certain aspects of our business down, or they opened them, and they closed them again," she said.

When the state shuttered dine-in service, takeout sales soared. Once the government lifted restrictions on indoor dining, demand for takeout dramatically decreased as more restaurants reopened.

"It's like a roller coaster. Depending on what rule is in place with the county, we will see it directly affect our business, up and down," Valles said.

Patrick Mulvaney, owner and chef of Mulvaney's Building &Loan, one of midtown Sacramento's signature restaurants, said the local health department had given restaurants limited guidelines on issues such as what to do in the event of sickness, testing and contact-tracing of employees.

"It's frustrating, not having clear guidance. A lot of times our local health doctors will not say anything," he said.

Because Sacramento County was one of the areas included in Newsom's July 1 order, the July 13 directive did not change operations at Mulvaney's restaurant. He had to lay off 54 people during the firstround of the outbreak.

"The truth is that with the pandemic, altogether, the first six months, our business was down over two-thirds, year-over-year, so… right now (we're) just trying to hang on," Mulvaney said.

He has joined programs sponsored by city and state governments to feed hundreds of elderly and low-income families, which has allowed him to bring back some workers and helped him and a number of other local eateries stay afloat.

"We want to do whatever we need to make sure we can get through this, so that people can come back out and keep the economy opened, and unfortunately that seems to be going through another shutdown in order to get there. We don't like it, but we understand it," he said.

In Arcadia, California, a city about 21 kilometers northeast of downtown Los Angeles, Sam Sun, co-owner of the Chinese restaurant Ikka Sizzling Pot, said the pandemic has severely hit restaurants in his area. Many were forced to temporarily shut their doors during the first wave of the virus.

Sales at his restaurant plunged 20 percent in June compared with the previous month, Sun said. He attributed part of the decline to fewer Chinese students in the area, saying they made up the majority of his customer base. Many overseas students moved back home as the outbreak worsened in the US.

Mulvaney said that, in many ways, the second round of coronavirus is more disheartening than the first, especially with the pandemic growing worse in California.

"For us as an industry, what I am afraid of is that a lot of us have been hanging on for four months, but if the door is closed, there is going to be a lot of folks who will never be able to open up again," he added.

Valles of Guerrilla Tacos said she is worried it might take a while before customers are completely comfortable dining out again, but that in the meantime, restaurant operators have to figure out a way to survive with low customer volume, thin profit margins and high rents.

"For every dollar we make, we probably profit, realistically, 4 to 5 cents, and that's a lot to be able to pay a rent that's $30,000, and many landlords are unwilling to work with us," she said.

"I think that's going to be the biggest downfall for restaurants and small businesses－no protection from our local officials on the city or the state levels, which will also force us to close, because we simply can't pay our bills," Valles said.