On May 11, after nearly two months of corona- virus-induced shutdowns by governors, restaurants in Arizona were allowed to return to dining in, with heavy precautions to prevent spread of the disease.
Restaurants in the Verde Valley may have returned to something resembling normal business after months of takeout only or closed doors, but owners say that their difficulties are far from over.
“Sales are down and expenses are up,” said Eric Jurisin, who owns the Haunted Group of restaurants throughout Cottonwood and Jerome with his wife. “Right now, we’re just grateful for what we’re doing. I don’t expect to close any of [my restaurants]. We’ll be fine, but, we’re going to have to take some time, I guess. Every day we have to live in fear, because — is the government going to tell us to close? Is somebody sick in one of our buildings so we have to close them?”
Jurisin, like other restaurant owners, said that actually following the state guidelines on social distancing was relatively easy for restaurants, mostly due to the heavy sanitization requirements that restaurants need to follow even in normal times. In addition, restaurants are operating at only partial capacity and pushing customers to outdoor seating when available.
“Our saving grace right now is our patio, because our patio has less stringent rules,” Jenny Robbins, co- owner of Moscato Italian Restaurant in Camp Verde, said. “There’s more room on the patio, which is great, because that means they can take our overflow. People understand that they need to sit on the patio. But now that we’re getting into the heat, I’m not sure that’s not going to affect us a little bit. With the terrible heat, people don’t want to sit outside. They want to sit inside.”
Many restaurant owners said that the first weekends after the reopening brought heavy crowds of “weekend warriors” from out of town, in the words of Jurisin. However, with social distancing continuing and the heat increasing, it remains unclear whether the summer months — which normally slow down compared to spring even in a normal year — will see the same kind of business.
“There’s a general sense of hope and strength, mixed with discouragement at what was lost, as everyone in Old Town took a significant financial and emotional hit, the long-term effects of which remain to be seen,” Brenda Clouston, owner of Colt Grille in Cottonwood and president of the Old Town Association, said.
Not all restaurants have come back. Violette’s Bakery and Cafe, which expanded to Old Town Cottonwood after originally setting up in Clarkdale, has closed down its Cottonwood location for good, according to owner Amber Gotina.
“I assumed we were going to be closed for two weeks, three weeks, a month,” Gotina said. “When the month passed, I realized that it was getting worse, and not better. I talked to my employees to see where their hearts were, and they all agreed that we should probably stay home for a little while longer. So we stayed home for another month. Two weeks ago, I had to make the decision. I looked up current guidelines for the restaurant and realized that it wasn’t that I didn’t want to open the patisserie up, but that under current guidelines, even right now that still stand, there’s no possible way I could have opened the patisserie up.”
Gotina had been saving up with the intention of moving her Cottonwood business to a larger venue in the same area. But the crisis has completely changed her plans and emptied out her bank account. Gotina returned to just her Clarkdale location — out of the caboose across the street from Town Hall — serving takeout with the addition of a plexiglass barrier to protect employees from COVID-19.
Restaurateurs say that while they are maintaining social distancing and health guidelines, there is some concern about less caution among restaurant guests. Owners said that most customers were not wearing masks and that many were not being careful about getting close to staff or others.
“I think they think we’re keeping them safe, but the guidelines are keeping our employees safe,” Robbins said.
In addition to the health- related issues, restaurants
face the additional difficulties of fractured supply chains during the crisis. Jurisin said that the cost of meat had risen to the point where his restaurants were selling steaks at a significant loss, and Gotina complained about not being able to find eggs or butter — the most essential ingredients for a bakery — at first.
Despite all the difficulties, restaurateurs expect that they will be able to come out on the other side of a challenging time for the business.
“We’ll find a way,” Jurisin said. “My wife and I have been doing this for 37 years. We keep reinventing the wheel as we go anyway. That’s part of our history.”
