For Napa County, when the state Department of Public Health on June 5 cleared the way for more business sectors to resume operations, the news brought a collective sigh of relief to the region’s main economic engine: hospitality and tourism.
Other Napa businesses, like gyms and nail salons, continue to wait.
Even though Napa’s restaurants, a main driver of the county’s hospitality industry, got a head start on May 20 when they were allowed to reopen their dining rooms, some have held back a little longer.
Chuck Meyer, owner of Napa Palisades Saloon, will not open until the last weekend of June.
“It just doesn’t make sense to open yet,” he said, explaining the saloon has 50 seats inside and only about a dozen outside. The saloon is being reconfigured to allow for social distancing in a relatively small space that was designed for patrons to gather together.
Meyer has submitted an application to the county’ planning commission seeking approval for additional outdoor seating in a public park behind the restaurant, which would allow him to get closer to being able to accommodate full-seating capacity. The city’s department of parks and recreation services also is involved in the approval process. Meyer said he’s anticipating a decision this week.
Meanwhile, Meyer is about to open another business.
On March 16, he was set to debut a new deli, First and Franklin Marketplace in downtown Napa. As it turned out, the timing couldn’t have been worse. The state went on lockdown that day because of the coronavirus pandemic. Three months later, the deli will open on June 15.
“We’re opening with a walk up and take out window, and then actually really going big with an online ordering system” for both establishments, Meyer said. “It’s a way to make my business more efficient and also make it more efficient and safer for the guests.”
Meyer, whose business has lost more than $600,000 in revenue over the past three months, said his biggest challenge is trying to navigate a clear path forward when information keeps changing or is murky, at best.
“Am I doing the right thing for the business? Am I doing the right thing for the employees? Am I doing the right thing for the long term-survival of the business?,” he said. “I think everybody has been faced with so many difficult decisions.”
Long-time Italian eatery Filippi’s Pizza Grotto, across from Oxbow Market, closed its restaurant in mid-March but was able to stay open for takeout, a natural for a pizzeria, said third-generation owner Tom Finch.
But with indoor-seating out of the equation for a couple of months, Finch lost significant revenue. He was able to secure a PPP loan, and with that has been able to bring back staff that he initially had to lay off.
“Just in March alone, I probably lost about $70,000. … And then April obviously was just as bad,” he said. “When you’re talking about losing that much business … we’re not going to recover for a very long time.”
Finch made modifications to the restaurant, including adding dividers between tables and installing glass between the stations, then opened the restaurant shortly after the go-ahead was given on May 20.
Since reopening, the pace of customers coming to Filippi’s to dine inside the restaurant has slowly been picking up, Finch said.
“We’re back to business, as usual as we can be,” he said.