Restaurant In Oranges Is Pandemic Victim: 'We Can't Make Plans'

ORANGES, NJ — New regulations mean new challenges. And there’s no shortage of either in the Oranges as New Jersey’s bars and restaurants adapt to the latest round of state coronavirus restrictions.

Last week, amid a rise in COVID-19 cases across the state, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that restaurants and bars will have to stop all indoor service by 10 p.m. and nix seating at the bar. Outdoor dining, takeout and delivery services can continue beyond 10 p.m., and enclosed, heated tents can be put up outside.

The new rules began Nov. 12.

• See related article: West Orange Bars, Restaurants Face New COVID Rules From NJ – Again

SOUTH ORANGE

In South Orange, master chef and restauranteur David Burke was forced to close down his eponymously named eatery at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club on Nov. 1 due to the financial blowback of the pandemic.

It’s not over in Essex County for Burke, who owns several other New Jersey restaurants and is looking into a location in Maplewood. But the lessons he garnered in South Orange will stick with him.

“Trying to operate within the pandemic created tremendously higher costs from all areas of our business, and we had to deal with the public’s fear of going out and make them feel safe and comfortable,” Burke said.

The state’s recent COVID rule changes aren’t sitting well with Burke, who told Patch that “you can’t keep changing course every week.”

“It makes it very difficult when the governors change their minds like they did a couple of times saying, you can open, now you can’t open, now you have to close again,” Burke said. “We don’t know how to forecast under those circumstances. We can’t make plans.”

The restauranteur said that he spent “well over $150,000” to outfit the grounds to create a whole new outdoor dining space and bar area at Orange Lawn, which didn’t host any outdoor dining before the pandemic.

The restaurant also saw about $4,000 extra per week in labor costs. Here’s how it broke down, Burke explained:

“We hired extra staff to take temperatures and collect data to track people. The outdoor dining space took more labor to set-up and break down the dining tables, chairs and bar area every day so the grass would still grow and look beautiful. Now the kitchen was 100 yards from the dining space so had to have waiters running trays of food out. Add to this that our waiters were making more money on unemployment, so they were not motivated to come back to work. We paid much more for help from a temp agency at $18 an hour than the $3 an hour we were paying waiters previously. And it was physically difficult with the heat, the masks and the 100 yards between the kitchen and the outdoor dining area. Imagine working in your yard for straight six hours in the heat and humidity, now add lifting heavy trays. and running 100 yards back and forth many times. It was tough.”

With sales already dipping, the restaurant took another hit when the weather began to get uglier.

“Luckily summer was hot but not rainy, but the fall we had a lot of rain and instead of operating seven days a week, we were down to five,” Burke said. “And, bar sales were not there. People don’t hang around after dinner if there is no bar.”

“Ordinarily, our liquor sales help with our numbers,” Burke added. “Now, that’s gone.”

Luckily, Burke’s other New Jersey properties are operating at a level that can withstand the storm. But it all varies, he said.

“I’m getting killed in [New York City],” Burke said. “But in New Jersey it’s our goal to break even or better, and if we’re lucky, make some money and stay in business.”

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ORANGE

Nearby in Orange, however, Roger Apollon Jr. of the Four City Brewing Company told Patch that the state’s new regulations “don’t have any real impact” on how they’ve been operating since the pandemic began.

“We’ve been closing for outdoor and limited indoor seating at 7:30 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday, and Sunday we’ve been closing at 6 p.m.,” Apollon said, a change from the previous closing time of 10 p.m.

“If anything, we see the restrictions as an opportunity for us to come up with new (and safe) ways to engage our customers,” Apollon said. “Although there are promising signs of a vaccine, we expect that this pandemic may be with us for longer than we all may like. We predict that running a business, going forward, will require a larger focus on long-term, health and safety regulations to prevent pandemics like this from happening again.”

WEST ORANGE

While towns must abide by the state’s 10 p.m. curfew, they’re free to roll out stricter curfews than the state, and have permission to order nonessential businesses to close after 8 p.m.

The shorter curfew hours aren't mandatory, and towns are free to stick with the 10 p.m. closing time.

• See related article: NJ Towns Can Add COVID-19 Restrictions On Businesses

In West Orange, there aren’t any plans to expand on Gov. Murphy’s restrictions, Mayor Robert Parisi said.

Parisi wrote on social media last week:

"Limited indoor and outdoor dining returned in late spring and does not appear to be directly related to the increase ... The township will continue to review all cases and coordinate with county and state officials for information and guidance but for the township, and all of us, to get through this, we all need to do our part, encourage family and friends to do theirs and to think through every action, even the small ones we take for granted … do I really need to go, can I get this done some other way, can this wait?"

When reached for comment about the state’s latest round of COVID rules, Parisi offered Patch the following statement on Sunday:

“All restaurants have already been deeply impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 virus and the way they conduct business. New restrictions will mean new challenges as they each struggle to find the delicate balance between compliance of mandated regulations and business sustainability. It is not the intention of municipal government to further hinder the way business is conducted. Our main priority is public safety and we will act accordingly to ensure the well-being of our residents and employees as future circumstances may dictate.”

Parisi added that the West Orange Downtown Alliance has been “working diligently” to help the community since the onset of the pandemic, and has been promoting local takeout services, hours of operation for businesses and levels of service for restaurants throughout the township.

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