‘We’re doing the best we can.’ Seattle restaurants are feeling the pressure with Covid cases on the rise again

It has been a month since Washington fully reopened.

A month in which bars, restaurants and other shops are allowed to operate at full capacity again.

How’s it going? And how is the spread of the delta variant affecting business?

Restaurant and bar owners are happy to be fully occupied again and to welcome more guests – old regulars and new faces – to their bars.

“Guest numbers are back, customers are back, people are excited,” said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association.

But some challenges remain.

The ongoing labor shortage means employers will be allowed back to full capacity but will struggle to recruit enough staff to function at pre-pandemic levels.

That means people like Pamela Jacob, the owner of Pam’s Kitchen in Wallingford, haven’t fully booted up yet.

“We’re actually only open 25 hours a week and I’m afraid to extend it because I don’t have people,” Jacob said.

Daisley Gordon, owner of Café Campagne on Pike Place Market, is in the same boat.

He said he doesn’t have enough staff to open every day of the week and he needs to get creative. Gordon and his head chef act as line cooks for many nights, while his wine director waited for the tables on a weekend.

“We want to open up. We want to give people a good time. And we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew,” Gordon said, adding that this has meant limiting the days and hours the cafe is open .

With labor shortages affecting people across the hospitality industry, the race to hire more has put pressure on pay, according to Gordon.

“I used to be able to tell you what the value of this position or something like that in your business plan is. And now you have to adjust your business plan because you have to say what do you have to pay that person to get the job? “

Gordon said he would adjust his budget to accommodate this.

Staff shortages are not the only area where bottlenecks arise. Some supplies are also hard to come by; Certain meats, some condiments, and take-away packaging are all things that are hard to find.

In addition, many companies are also facing financial burdens as a result of the pandemic.

“Even if we had all of our workers and we were back to full capacity, we would have accumulated two or three years’ worth of debt,” said Anton of the Washington Hospitality Association. “So we have to pay that off.”

Despite the challenges, Anton said, people are happy to be doing what they love again.

But as the state reopens, many Washington communities are experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

In King County, nearly 81% of residents 12 and older have been vaccinated against COVID-19, but about 680,000 residents remain unvaccinated, according to Public Health – Seattle and King Counties.

With the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, the number of cases continues to increase.

This is a cause for concern for people in the hospitality industry. You don’t want things to get really bad again and roll back into the restrictions.

As cases rise, several more bars in the Seattle area have decided to require proof of vaccination to enter the country. Queer / Bar, The Cuff Complex, the doctor’s office and Linda’s Tavern all require proof of vaccination starting this week.

The statement on the Queer / Bar website reads: “Please know that this policy is not intended to exclude anyone from our venues, but rather is a security tactic we are implementing to everyone who works in and visits our premises to keep it safe as possible. “

The statement also said the new requirement felt like the right move with the current COVID-19 numbers, but it’s temporary.

As the Seattle Times reported, several bars have recently been temporarily closed because workers tested positive or had contact with an infected person.

With another warm weekend approaching, Pamela Jacob of Pam’s Kitchen and others in the industry ask that the people who go to bars and restaurants be patient.

“When you walk into restaurants, especially small restaurants and family-owned shops, you just walk in knowing that we are small and that we do our best,” Jacob said.