San Francisco North Bay restaurants ‘may have turned a corner’ in pandemic survival
Bringing back various restaurant ventures in Northern and Southern California over the past four decades from earthquakes, recessions, floods and riots didn’t prepare Napa Valley chef and restaurateur Ken Frank for the coronavirus pandemic.
“Nothing comes close to economic devastation of this pandemic, especially because restaurants are inherently social businesses,” said Frank, who owns La Toque Napa Valley, located inside the Westin Napa hotel. “With social distancing, the virus is tailored to destroying the restaurant business.”
The California Restaurant Association found that 30% of establishments surveyed in August would close permanently or shutter locations because of restrictions on their operations during the pandemic. There have been multiple partial and full closures of California restaurant dining in the past 12 months, some have scaled back or shifted to take-out, delivery and outdoor dining to survive.
Before the pandemic shelter-at-home orders in March 2020, Frank employed nearly 100, including staffing at La Toque and the hotel operations he operates, Bank Café and Bar in the lobby and the banquet department. Now, the crew is pared back to just over 40, as the banquet business is effectively closed until events are allowed again, and the café is only busy on the weekends. La Toque also has cut back to being open five days a week, instead of seven.
The recent passage of the federal aid package, with $26 billion to help restaurants, and the rollout of vaccines are encouraging, Frank said.
“I’m encouraged that we may have turned a corner, and next few weeks will be good, but think it will be a couple years before (Napa Valley gets) back to solid international destination,” he said said.
Napa County’s move back into the red tier of California’s reopening system earlier this month allows dining for up to 25% socially distanced capacity indoors, and the county is expected to move into the orange by April, allowing 50% inside. La Toque has been making do with 14 distanced tables for parties of two to typically four in its outdoor dining in its glass terrace, which was designed with ample ventilation for the 14 13,000 BTU heaters.
“It’s a game changer,” Frank said about the return to 25% indoor capacity, given that it came during a week of rain. “At 50%, I think restaurants maybe will not thrive but will get healthy. We’re managing to keep all the tables we’re allowed to have full.”
Reservations for La Toque and the hotel are solid for the next eight to 15 weeks, moving into summer, and bookings for weddings on the hotel grounds are up, Frank said. And an encouraging sign, he said, is that the hotel parking lot is full, as the regional visitors to Wine Country that have been expected to be the first to venture out appear to be arriving, something confirmed by La Toque’s reservation list, he said.
In Marin County, Lito Saldana’s Los Moles restaurant in San Rafael has been buoyed in the past 12 months by a city permit to take over three parking spaces out front Friday through Sunday, expanding outdoor seating from 25 (10 tables) on the sidewalk to 55.
The county was the first in the North Bay this year to return to the red tier, so Los Moles seating goes up to 80 on the weekends. Saldana’s company has two other Los Moles restaurants in El Cerrito and Emeryville plus a 5 Tacos and Beers spot in Albany and one is set to open in Walnut Creek by late summer.
“Especially, (our) San Rafael (restaurant) is not doing well, but we see that we will survive through the pandemic,” Saldana said. “April through July are the best months for us, so we’re preparing to do everything we can to attract more people.”
Attractions that seem to be helping and likely will become post-pandemic features are expanded outdoor seating and more live music, he said. While the parklet seating allowance currently is set to end in San Rafael by November 2022, his company is expanding the El Cerrito location into the parking lot to have as many outdoor seats as inside, or 400 total, plus adding electric heaters.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
