Emily Hays Photo
Enjoying a lunchtime beer and waiting for steak tips to arrive, Al Casagrande (pictured) felt safe sitting outside Temple Grill on the first day of Connecticut’s “phase one” reopening — safer than he feels on his construction job.
The Temple Street eatery was among the first to swing back into action mid-day Wednesday under rules set by Gov. Ned Lamont to allow outdoor dining as the spread of Covid-19 slows.
“I’m happy to be open. It’s been a tough couple of months,” Temple Grill Owner Salvatore Gagliardi said.
Gagliardi said that if not for takeout and delivery orders downtown and at his North Haven restaurant Giulio’s Pizza, Temple Grill would have closed permanently.
“Thank God we have loyal customers. If not for them, we would be a statistic,” Gagliardi said.
Outside, Casagrande and his date (who preferred not be named in the article) sat at a table spaced six feet from other tables. The first customers of the day had just left; no one else had arrived yet. They drank from disposable cups (the cost of making menus and utensils disposable, per the new rules, falls squarely on the businesses, Gagliardi pointed out).
The emptiness of the lunch hour is part of what convinced Casagrande to make this spontaneous stop after an errand. He said that the patio was emptier than the construction site where he has worked through the closures of other parts of the economy.
“I feel that if I’m going to get it, I’m going to get it. It’s kind of inevitable, isn’t it?” he said.
A few other restaurants downtown were arranging seats mid-day preparing to open outdoor spaces for dinner.
Most shops in the downtown area that were open …
… stayed takeout and delivery-focused.
Those that had been closed in recent weeks instead of offering take-out…
… stayed closed.
Many have plans to reopen later. Owl Shop General Manager James Richards (pictured) said the patio will open in the first week of June.
Starting At Dinner
A few other restaurants downtown were arranging seats mid-day preparing to open outdoor spaces for dinner. The owner and employees of Union League’s outdoor cafe La Terrasse found they could seat around 20 people while following state guidelines.
Union League Cafe has been through a few phases during the pandemic. For the first weeks of social distancing orders, the restaurant closed completely and helped employees navigate applying for unemployment benefits.
Soon the restaurateurs realized that the closures would last more than a few weeks and decided to find some form of pick up and delivery service, owner and general manager Romain Turpault said.
This was not an easy transition for the kind of food Union League Cafe serves, Turpault said. To make sure customers could experience the fine dining as the chef intended, the cafe delivered the meals to customers cold. Customers finished the last five to 10 minutes of searing and arranging the plates themselves, with help from instructions provided by the cafe.
Turpault said that this service would continue as the restaurant reopens some seating, because some of his customer base is older and more at risk if they contract Covid-19.
“We’re starting with a smaller menu because we don’t know what to expect,” Turpault said.
Turpault said that he does not want to waste food, especially when ingredients are more difficult to source now than usual. He plans to start with two servers at a time and shorter hours: dinners on Wednesday through Saturday, plus a new addition of Sunday brunch.
He said that reopening is an opportunity to try out new dishes, like sticky rice with deep fried escargot. The pastry chef they hired from France right before the pandemic hit will have the chance to experiment too.
So far, Turpault is not worried about his own health.
“No one in my or any staff members’ families has gotten sick. If someone close to me who had it, I would be way more scared,” Turpault said.
Smokehouse Was Ready
Maya McFadden Photo
In Fair Haven, Bear’s Smokehouse at DISTRICT was still doing take-out and delivery meals during the pandemic’s shutdown phase. Since the closure of the dining room, co-owner Jamie McDonald has heard nonstop inquiries from customers asking for the smokehouses ribs, sliders, and beer.
Wednesday’s partial reopening of business made it so Bear’s customers were no longer limited to only ordering to-go and delivery meals.
The restaurant opened its outdoor seating area back up on Wednesday for those customers looking to enjoy their meals with a sense of safety and normality. The tables and seats have been spaced out on the patio to distance groups from one another. McDonald said each seating area will be sanitized after each use.
With an increase in sanitation efforts, a staff of 12 is required per shift.
“We’re working to put people at ease so I think something like the patio will help to get people confident,” McDonald said.
New Haven firefighters and workers from the Otis Elevator Company stopped at the smokehouse’s outdoor tent to place their orders. An Otis worker said Wednesday was just another day for them as they have been working during the pandemic. “If we aren’t at a deli or something, then we’re here for lunch,” one worker said while waiting for his order of a full rack of baby back ribs.
About Those Homes …
The co-owner of Fair Haven Furniture, Lao Triffin, said the business was ready to reopen to help customers to redecorate their homes that they have been confined to for more than a month now.
The store is operating by appointments only to start. A few customers had already come in by mid-day.
At the store’s entrance gloves and hand sanitizer are encouraged and offered.
Triffin said the store closed a week before most businesses did to be safe. “Reopening is going to happen eventually, and if we do it now, we have the time to get everything right,” he said.
With reduced staff, the store established a cleaning schedule after each appointment visit. “We are being cautiously optimistic,” Triffin said.
To also keep the employee and customers safe, Triffin said, the store will conduct daily employee temperature checks.
In addition to ramped up sanitation, the store keeps its doors propped open and its windows open for airflow.
The store is also working on increasing its one-way travel expectations. For its reopening customers were asked to use one door for entrance and another door to exit.
For customers looking to try out mattresses, Triffin said, a thin sheet of plastic will be cut and placed on the furniture for them to lay on with limited direct contact.
As the store works to improve its safety for customers and employees in-store, Triffin said his team is looking to continue its design visits but with safety restrictions. “Hopefully it will all become more clear as we go,” he said.
Ricky D’s May Remain Take-out Only
“I won’t never stop coming out for Ricky D’s. It’s my pick me up,” said customer Pauline McFarlane who waited outside of the rib shack for her order to be prepared.
Ricky D’s Rib Shack has yet to close during the pandemic. Instead, it has resorted to closing its dine-in area and servicing its customers through take-out and delivery. It did not launch outdoor dining Wednesday, and might not ever.
“Once we got past the beginning where we had to figure out what was safe and what wasn’t, we were good,” said Owner Ricky Evans.
The restaurant has been keeping its door wide open in every aspect. In March Evans decided to not only close the dining area but to move aside all of the tables and chairs and place markers for customers to socially distance while waiting for food.
Evans also hung up a plexiglass barrier at the front register.
The restaurant’s dining area once could seat 32. It may not make a come back at the restaurant said Evans. “I would rather have more kitchen space,” he said.
Despite the changes the restaurant has had to make during the pandemic, Evans said these times do not compare to how hard times were during the restaurant’s first and second year.
“It’s all about rebuilding the customer’s confidence at this point,” Evans said.