A swell of Bay Area restaurants is taking another step against omicron: closing indoors once again

Some restaurants are closing their dining rooms entirely and reverting to takeout-only operations for now,including Ox & Tiger,a Filipino-Japanese pop-up that was in its first few weeks of operating a brick-and-mortar spot in San Francisco. One of the city’s top omakase restaurants, Ju-Ni,canceled its indoor and outdoor reservations through Februaryand will use the time for a remodel. Scandinavian spot Kantine, also in San Francisco,decided to reduce its indoor capacity by half(and then closed temporarily through Jan. 11 because of short staffing), while Oakland worker-led restaurant Understory isaskingcustomers to upgrade their masks to N95 or KN95 and keep their interactions indoors swift while they get takeout.

Owners say it feels like a difficult but necessary decision to maintain safety in the face of the omicron variant, despite the costs of lost revenue and reduced hours for staff.

“Indoors is just much more dangerous by nature,” Albertson of Monk’s Kettle said. “It’s been a crazy thing throughout this pandemic where the core of our business model is actually unsafe at times. It’s going to be fast and furious so we thought, ‘Let’s get ahead of it now.’”

Without indoor dining, his restaurant in the Mission can still rely on a parklet and to-go orders. But thenewer Terra Linda locationdoesn’t have a large outdoor dining area nor the same demand for takeout or delivery. It made more sense financially to close for a few months than struggle through, Albertson said. He hopes to reopen both restaurants in early March but it will depend on how much health conditions improve. They are considering requiring proof of a booster shot at that point to eat inside, Albertson said.

Mona Leena, chef and owner of Palestinian brunch spot Lulu in Berkeley, said there was a moment last month where it seemed like everyone she knew was getting exposed to the virus and nobody could get tests easily. Last week, she closed Lulu’s dining room and outdoor seating and switched to takeout.

“I didn’t want to have to abruptly close like I’ve seen restaurants have to do in the past couple of weeks,” she said.

Throughout the pandemic, health experts have said thatindoor dining is among the riskiest activitiesbecause people must take their masks off to eat and drink. In late December, two leading experts on the coronavirus, UCSF Department of Medicine chair Bob Wachter and Warner Greene, a virologist and senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco,said they would no longer be eating inside restaurants for now.

EJ Macayan and Hitomi Wada of Ox & Tiger started to get increasingly concerned in late December when customers started canceling same-day reservations due to exposures or an onset of symptoms. They’re alsoworried about coronavirus testing availability;the couple had been getting tested every week with no issue, but this week faced long lines and delayed results.

The change in operations means both owners and workers take a financial hit. Albertson laid off at least six out of 20 employees after closing indoor dining in San Francisco. Lulu lost money that first takeout-only weekend, Leena said, and she had to cut shifts for servers. She plans to bring back outdoor seating soon but doesn’t think she’ll feel comfortable reopening indoors until cases go down.

“It’s very anxiety-inducing,” she said. “You just don’t know what’s happening next and you’re having to make these hard decisions that affect your employees’ livelihoods.”

Popular downtown Berkeley cafe Asha Tea House reopened after a temporary closure on Sunday with paper signs taped to the chairs stating that indoor seating was closed indefinitely. Co-owner David Lau felt like it was the safest decision, partially influenced by the fact that he tested positive for the coronavirus. He’s going on his eighth day in quarantine.

The team discussed returning to Asha’s previous mode of operation during the pandemic: a table blocking the door, so no customers could come in. Some other takeout-focused outfits have recently brought back window service in the name of safety,including Oakland bakery Bake Sum.But Lau said masks and takeout service feels safe enough.

“From a mental health standpoint for our staff, it’s been better having customers inside,” he said. “It felt really sullen in the beginning when it was only us.”

In the absence of any guidance from the government, Oakland’s Understory released new guidelines Thursday aimed at applying what the worker-leaders learned throughout the pandemic about masking and social distancing. The staff is now suggesting customers wear N95s when getting takeout, though they won’t turn away someone in a cloth mask given it can be hard to find N95s right now.

“We’re trying to bring awareness to the fact thatcloth masks with this new variant are not as effectiveas people might believe they are,” said worker-leader Florencio Esquivel.

Manresa Bread, which operates two popular bakeries and a third cafe in the South Bay, reverted to pickup and delivery only this week. The Campbell cafe with a full dining room is the most affected, but given the core of the business is baked goods, owner Avery Ruzicka said she didn’t have to cut any staffs’ hours. She doesn’t expect sales to suffer significantly, but they won’t grow either.

Halting indoor dining feels safer, she said, but it’s also a grim reminder of the challenges of working in the service industry during an almost two-year-long pandemic.

“There’s an emotional cost to all of this. There’s a lot of PTSD,” Ruzicka said. “This is hard for everybody, especially people whose job it is to show up and be in a social environment every day.”