MaryKate Heaney checks out diners from behind a partition. Promenade Family Dining restaurant is, like all bars and restaurants that have completed the state's self certification process, now open today for indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, January 4, 2021.
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
MaryKate Heaney checks out diners from behind a partition. Promenade Family Dining restaurant is, like all bars and restaurants that have completed the state's self certification process, now open today for indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, January 4, 2021.
Like many restaurant owners in Pennsylvania, Athan Polychronis is welcoming back diners today inside the Promenade Family Restaurant in Swatara Township.
Since Dec. 12, the Swatara Township establishment’s dining room was closed in accordance with Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 mitigation orders banning indoor dining at restaurants and bars. The Promenade focused on takeout and delivery orders, although Polychronis admits it barely made up for lost business.
“It’s tough when you have 20 orders to go a day. It’s not going to pay the bills,” he said.
Starting today, restaurants that certify with the state can resume seating indoors at 50% capacity, while gyms and entertainment venues such as theaters, casinos and museums are permitted to reopen. In addition, school extracurricular activities can resume.
Wolf said the temporary measures, though admittedly painful, were necessary in light of the sharp rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations seen in recent weeks.
“Our mitigation efforts over the past several weeks have done what they were intended to do,” he said last week. “The time-limited measures will expire as planned.”
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
Marti of Swatara Township is served her meal. Promenade Family Dining restaurant is, like all bars and restaurants that have completed the state’s self certification process, now open today for indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, January 4, 2021.
While the end of the dining ban brings some relief, restaurants continue to operate under limits including no bar seating, an 11 p.m. booze sales cutoff and required sale of food with alcoholic beverage purchases. Many restaurants and bars, already badly hurt financially during the pandemic, said the temporary restrictions came at a particularly bad time during the holiday season.
Some establishments defied the governor’s dining ban and continued to serve diners indoors. Now as the indoor ban is lifted, Polychronis said he fears it will be tough to bring back diners who more than likely vacillated to those establishments that remained open.
“I followed the rules. I don’t know, it’s really hard right now, “ he said. “I don’t want to blame the people who remained open. We tried to open for to-go, but a lot of other places were open [for sit down service].”
Joanna Lembesis, owner of What If of Hershey in Derry Township, said while she sympathizes with those who made the call to stay open, she stuck to the orders and shut down indoor dining for the three-week period. What If also relied on takeout and delivery only.
She said while it was a tough call to make, she didn’t want to risk the consequences of breaking the rules.
“I didn’t want to lose my liquor license,” Lembesis said. “I didn’t want to take a chance because that’s all I have. Once that’s taken away we basically have nothing.”
Road Hawg Barbecue in Dillsburg reopens for sit down service on Thursday. Co-owner Keith Walters said he followed orders but admits his barbecue joint lends itself to takeout.
Still, Walters said he can see why some establishments remained open: “I don’t think it was born so much out of defiance as people just desperate to stay in business.”
Walters noted had the circumstances been reversed and takeout orders targeted by the governor, he would have taken a stand against such a ban.
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
Promenade Family Dining restaurant is, like all bars and restaurants that have completed the state’s self certification process, now open today for indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, January 4, 2021.
Pho King Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant owner Brian Nguyen said he also isn’t judging his competitors who defied the rules. His restaurant in Hampden Township reopens for dining today and had remained open for takeout and delivery.
“I know to defy the order of the governor is illegal but there’s always a ‘but’ in this life. People need to make a living. I’m not going to say what they did was bad because they need to make a living,” he said.
Pho King is losing money, he noted, but not as badly as the first shutdown in the spring of 2020, just two weeks after the restaurant opened. Customer support, Nguyen said has been appreciated.
“I think they know we are struggling. That is the main reason that keeps me going. I can see that they are really trying to help,” he said.
Likewise, Lembesis said the dining ban has cut into profits. She estimates she lost nearly $250,000 in business from canceled parties and events, including reservations for 300 on New Year’s Eve. Now, the reopening comes at what is traditionally the slowest time of the year for the restaurant industry.
Lembesis said the restaurant will not recoup those profits, and certainly not in January when some people are avoiding restaurants as they follow New Year’s diet resolutions. In the coming days, she said plans to add an enclosed tent and several bubble tents to accommodate outdoor dining.
“I’m so excited for the customers to come back and to get my employees back,” said Pat Manjon, one of the owners of Los Tres Cubanos in Shipoke.
She said it was painful to lay off employees before the holidays, and would check in with them over the three-week span to see if they needed anything such as food.
The restaurant reopens at 4 p.m. with dine-in as well as outdoor dining in an enclosed tent.
“It is a slow time and I think people are still afraid to come out. And I don’t think business will be booming, but you have your regulars who come in and you have the people who pick up their takeout,” she added.
This story originally appeared at pennlive.com.
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