Ripple effects of Delta variant cause anxiety for restaurants, bars

Ashley Cake, co-owner of The Watershed in Ithaca (ithacawatershed.com), has had to shut down her bar twice in the past year and a half because of the pandemic — once back in the spring of 2020 and again from late last year until April of this year. And while the bar finally saw some relief this spring and summer as COVID-19 case numbers fell, it’s facing a new wave of challenges as the Delta variant causes significant backsliding across the county.

“Most of July, we were able to lift the mask mandates and take away the barriers that we had at the bar and let it get a little bit fuller in here, even though we never really packed it out,” Cake said. “But when cases started going up again and we, particularly, found out that vaccinated folks can not only contract the Delta variant, but also spread it, that was when we put the mask requirements back up and put the barriers back up at the bar and limited capacity a little bit more. And that’s what we’ve been in for the last month now.”

And Cake’s not alone. The Delta variant has not only caused more uncertainty for restaurant and bar owners but also widespread ripple effects, including challenges related to supplies and staffing.

Changing policies

While all sources interviewed for this story reported at least some return of pandemic anxieties in customers or staff due to the Delta variant, any resulting policy changes varied depending on the establishment.

At The Boatyard Grill in Ithaca (boatyardgrill.com) and Ciao! in the village of Lansing (ciaoithaca.com), co-owner Mark Campagnolo said that he’s noticed more people coming in with masks on, and he’s put signage at the front of both businesses asking unvaccinated individuals to wear a mask.

“That’s all we can really do at that point,” he said. “We can’t force the issue. But we did it for our staff. And we’ve noticed probably about a third of the people coming in the door were wearing masks now, where a good couple of months ago, they were not. So, people don’t seem to be that concerned with it at the moment. But it certainly has risen.”

At the Seabring Inn in Newfield (facebook.com/SeabringInn), co-owner Jordan Rosenbaum also said that his policies haven’t changed much since the Delta variant hit, so mask-wearing and vaccinations remain recommendations, not mandates, at his business.

“We tried to figure out how to create a safe atmosphere that was fun so it wasn’t like you were being herded into a table and you’re stuck there,” he said. “It’s like, let’s put up TVs, and let’s keep the tables 6 feet away, but let’s create an atmosphere where they can yell at each other and have a fun time. And that really resonated with people. They were like, ‘God, I feel like I’m finally sitting down at a nice little roadside tavern for the first time in two years, and it feels like a real place.’”

Bar Argos at the Argos Inn in Ithaca (argosinn.com/bar) switched to an outdoor arrangement last year, which it maintained throughout last winter and this year. Because of the outdoor setting, the bar doesn’t require vaccinated individuals to be masked, and staff isn’t checking vaccination cards. But Bar Manager Tippy Ard said those policies will likely have to change this fall and winter.

“We’re thinking that we will go to vaccination only in order to enter a situation inside the bar [that] will allow us to, once people are in, operate as business as usual,” she said. “Social distancing inside of the bar is extremely difficult. It’s really difficult to enforce, it takes a lot of manpower, cuts down on the amount of business you can do, and then it also leaves you with this feeling of, is this even effective?”

Kate Conroy, co-owner of The Rhine House in Ithaca (therhinehouse.com), has already made the switch to only allowing vaccinated individuals into her bar — including checking vaccination cards at the door — for the same reason Ard outlined.

“There are some businesses where masks make the most sense, but bars and restaurants need a different strategy since you can’t be masked while eating and drinking,” Conroy said in an email. “If you don’t have ample outdoor space with ability to distance, we figure the vax requirement might be the best defense even if it rubs some folks the wrong way. Our main goal is to protect our staff, customers and community.”

Challenges

By far, the biggest challenge bars and restaurants interviewed for this story are facing due to the Delta variant is a bit less direct — supply shortages. As sources described, the Delta variant has contributed to labor shortages, not just at area businesses but also at production companies.

At The Heights Restaurant and H Bar in Ithaca (theheightsithaca.com), co-owner James Larounis said he’s struggled a lot with supply shortages and price hikes for the past several months, particularly with meat.

“What we have going on with inflation, it’s huge,” he said. “Baby back ribs were always $1.99 a pound. … They’re going [for] $5.79 a pound now. … How do you do that? What are you supposed to do as a business? … You’re talking $18-a-pound beef tenderloin. How do you run a business? How do you do it?”

Rosenbaum reported similar challenges at his establishment.

“You can’t make your chicken wings $30 a dozen,” he said. “But if they’re up 100% [in cost to me], OK, so I raise it a little bit so the customer offsets it a little bit, Sysco gets all their money, but it just comes out of my margin, my profit, and makes everything really tight. So, I would say that’s the biggest challenge, the price of everything in the supply line. You can’t get Saranac beer right now. It’s not because they’re not making beer; it’s they don’t have the cardboard to put it in the boxes.”

Some sources said staffing shortages at their own businesses has hindered pandemic recovery progress.

“The labor problem has caused such havoc,” Campagnolo said. “Downtown Ithaca, restaurant row and half the restaurants are closed half the week. We have to close Boatyard four shifts a week. That has cost us a fortune, especially in the middle of summer. Ciao!, up on Triphammer [Road], we’ve had to close for lunch, which is very busy for us, because of the labor shortage. And again, that has cost us so much in lost revenue.”

And still, some owners are facing additional challenges due to capacity limitations.

“We have the downstairs draft bar, which was finished mid-pandemic, and we’ve been able to do some … parties and limited weekend service, but it’s hard,” Cake said. “And so, that bar hasn’t really been officially opened. And I’m hoping that we’re going to be able to get back to full capacity service in The Watershed. It’s just challenging for the staff and the customers to kind of go back and forth between really careful service and then being a little bit more open.”

Looking ahead

With the state of the pandemic in flux right now, it’s no surprise that owners’ plans for the rest of this year and even into next are filled with uncertainty.

“Honestly, our outlook changes every day,” Conroy said. “There are so many unknowns now and so much that is out of our control. Sometimes, it feels really bleak and normal feels really far away. Other days, I remember the importance of that ‘third place’ in a community for people to come together, and it’s worth making hard decisions to protect it. … I’m unsure if we will be able to stay open throughout the winter again, but our biggest hope is that by next spring/summer, things will be closer to normal.”

Because of that uncertainty, Cake said she’s asking customers to be patient as she and others try to keep up with all the changes.

“The customers have to understand that we need to have a limited capacity, that we need to have the mask mandates in place in order to stay open,” Cake said. “They might not be able to get into The Watershed on a busy weekend night. Just patience and understanding.”

Some sources said they’d like to see an additional round of restaurant aid to help with these and other upcoming challenges, though it’s unclear whether that aid will actually come. For Ard, she said she’d also like to see more uniform guidance in Ithaca as far as what policies to have related to things like masking, vaccinations and capacity limits.

“It often feels like we’re kind of flying blind, and we get updated to new guidelines not in the most streamlined way,” she said. “I wish there was a more direct way to communicate with businesses frequently. … It’s really hard to stay up to date with different guidelines. It’s hard on guests right now. And every place that you enter as a patron has a different set of guidelines and expectations.”