Business barriers

The bar is back: on paper, anyway.

With capacity limits being lifted May 19 and patrons allowed to sit on barstools again May 7, restaurants will have the opportunity to bring in more business in a less rulebound way, reminiscent of pre-pandemic business.

Blue Moon Mexican owner Howie Felixbrod, however, noted the complexity of opening up while still mandating distancing. Keeping patrons apart at a fully open bar is “next to impossible,” he said. “We already have dividers at the bar and at every table. For now, we will keep them in place to limit the big groups as much as possible,” Felixbrod added.

Expanding capacity to 100% doesn’t change much for smaller restaurants while social distancing remains mandated. That’s the case for Sofia in Englewood, according to owner Eddy Sujak, and for Man Skirt Brewing in Hackettstown, according to owner Joe Fisher.

Amy Russo, who owns breakfast and lunch restaurant Toast in Red Bank, Montclair and Asbury Park, said it’ll push her to buy more plexiglass at Toast; with fixed seats, especially in her Red Bank location, she puts up thin pieces of plexiglass as a barrier between groups.

“I was kind of hoping that when the capacity limits would be lifted, it would also only make sense to lift the 6 feet social distancing rule. Without that being lifted, there’s not much more we can do unless we spend more money on however we’re doing barriers,” Russo said. “We just can’t get more people in there. No restaurant in New Jersey normally has six feet between the tables. And it’s not like we have an extra 2,000-square-foot dining room to put more tables in.”

At Toast’s three locations, the barriers have cost well over a thousand dollars, despite going for the “cheapest plexiglass money can buy, because I can’t keep spending money when I’m losing money.”

Restaurant owners did welcome the reopening of in-house event spaces. Fisher at Man Skirt expects to start booking private events and parties in the brewery’s upstairs room, And LT Bar & Grill co-owner Yoram Shemesh said the Hackensack restaurant will start booking at their LT Above event space, which launched—but has had no opportunity for events—during the pandemic.

Theater owners emphasized challenges despite the capacity limit revision. At Two River Theater in Red Bank, Managing Director Michael Hurst said that social distancing strictures put the 349-seat theater at maximum 40% or 50% capacity. Turning the lights on for any capacity lower than that isn’t cost effective for many theaters, explained New Jersey Theatre Alliance Executive Director John McEwan, who said now with the limit on outdoor shows expanded to 500 patrons, more theaters will be able to welcome enough guests to be in the black.

Planning and preparing for showtime is a months-long process for theaters, given artist availability, actors’ union rules, and more. “Just because the governor lifted restrictions, it doesn’t mean, ‘oh, let me produce.’ It takes a lot of time to plan,” McEwan said.

While McEwan expects few indoor productions between now and fall, outdoor productions will take place all over the state, including at Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, Two River Theater in Red Bank, Luna Stage in West Orange, and Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison.

Salons also face challenges even at 100% capacity because most are built according to state board regulations with chairs 5 feet apart. Stag House co-owner and co-founder of the NJ Salon & Spa Alliance Christine Modica said her salon uses and will continue to use the plexiglass barriers even after the 6-foot distancing rule is lifted to keep customers comfortable. And she said the capacity limit lift came at a surprising time—just two weeks after her industry and the general public have been eligible for vaccines.

We’re still not doing beard trims, we’re not comfortable with them; but what this is going to do is give everyone the freedom to run their businesses as they see fit, which is what we wanted this whole time.
– Christine Modica

“I think a lot of people have been yearning for it,” she said on the broad reopening. “What lifting is going to mean for people in our industry is they’re going to work within their comfortability. We’re still not doing beard trims, we’re not comfortable with them; but what this is going to do is give everyone the freedom to run their businesses as they see fit, which is what we wanted this whole time.”

Enforcing social distancing is more of a challenge for retailers than it is for businesses where patrons sit in fixed places, Inkwood Books owner Julie Beddingfield said. Inkwood may limit capacity on its own to enforce distancing.

Nonetheless, she’s excited for the next phase. For her business, it’ll mean bringing the community together once again for writing workshops, author events, and story time. But as a part of the community, it means much more.

“The fact that the restaurants can open up, that’s just going to bring in more businesses for everyone. We’re a neighborhood. We all have to do well in order for all of us to make it. I look out my door and there’s three restaurants across the street. If they don’t make it…towns like this, it’s the cafes and the retailers and the yoga studios, all of that becomes this cohesive place and we all feed off each other. I might be doing fine, but the restaurants, bars, yoga studios, they all mean something to me,” Beddingfield said.

Russo, however relieved she said she’ll feel when her restaurants are back up and running the way they did pre-pandemic, withheld gratitude in discussing the ease in restrictions. “I certainly am not thankful. That would be like having Stockholm Syndrome with the person that kidnapped you,” she said.

Her optimism for reopening is cautious from experience. Last summer, after announcing plans to reopen indoor dining on July 2, Gov. Phil Murphy postponed the plans in response to rising COVID numbers. Indoor dining wouldn’t reopen for another two months. “It’s one of those things where you’re really reluctant to celebrate. You just don’t believe its going to stay the course and stay open,” Russo said.