Here’s What 18 LA Restaurant Owners and Chefs Think About Potential Reopenings
“Will you try and open under half capacity if that turns out to be a requirement?
Karolyn Plummer, Sweet Red Peach, Inglewood
Yes. But I believe the restrictions should stay around just a little longer, just to protect everyone. I would just keep things at half capacity, to ease people’s fears. You don’t want to rush. People are very skeptical and scared right now. But If we have to do this whole social distancing and restaurant closing again, it would be bad for a majority of the restaurants.”
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“Josh Loeb, Rustic Canyon Restaurant Group, Santa Monica
We‘re going to do whatever we’re allowed to do. Making food and serving food is what we love to do, and our livelihood depends on that. It’s not ideal, but if they tell us that we can have people in our restaurants, which is something we desperately miss, we’re going to do it. It’s not the romantic restaurant experience we all love. It’s going to be weird. It’s also going to challenge us to find new ways to give hospitality and warmth and love to our customers.”
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“Monica Lee, Beverly Soontofu, Koreatown
We are hoping to open in May sometime but we are seeing how the pandemic’s peak goes this month. We don’t want to reopen until we know that we can open safely.
Jeff Won, Jun Won, Koreatown
Not too concerned about the reopening timeline but more concerned if it’s safe to reopen. Because at the end of the night if one of us gets hurt we are going to need to close.”