CLEVELAND — Over the weekend, outdoor bars and restaurant patios reopened across Ohio -- not always smoothly. Ohio’s big reopening has some restaurant workers understandably nervous as they prepare to serve patrons indoors again this week. We spoke to folks who work in the restaurant business to get a better understanding of how all of us can be the type of customer that wait staff will really appreciate right now.
Aimee Blomgren and her husband are co-owners of Park Tavern In North Royalton. She said there are several things customers can do to be mindful of servers, bartenders and other staff members when going to eat or drink.
1. Go in with a positive attitude. If a worker asks you to relocate to another stool or table or asks you not to congregate between tables, listen.
“Be cognizant of that. Show your appreciation by not getting disgruntled and acknowledge the staff is doing their best to comply with what Ohio has set in terms of guidelines. We want to stay open just as much as you want us to,” Blomgren said.
2. Try to pay with plastic instead of cash when you can.
“Of course we can’t tell people how to pay, but plastic tends to be a cleaner, faster and more efficient way to pay overall,” Blomgren said.
3. Be understanding when ordering.
Blomgren said that employees may be harder to hear through a mask and in a noisy environment like a restaurant or bar, it may take a little longer to communicate to guests.
4. Practice patience.
With restaurants and bars having to reduce capacity, they’ve also had to reduce their staff. Wait times for a meal or a drink might be a little longer than you’re used to, but the staff is working hard every night to ensure the best and quickest service possible under the circumstances, Blomgren said.
5. Remember you might not be stressed about getting the virus, but your server or bartender may very well be.
“You don’t know what a person’s situation is outside of the workplace. You don’t know what they are going home to and who they might be worried about getting sick, so it’s important to keep them in mind,” Blomgren said. Many restaurant workers have yet to receive unemployment benefits and returning to work might not be a choice rather than a requirement to survive.
6. Stay home if you feel sick.
The Ohio Restaurant Association asks that customers who have been exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms, even if you don't think it's the virus, stay home and opt for delivery services instead.
From a worker's point of view
Joey Gentile is an experienced restaurant worker, having been in the industry for more than 10 years, working his way up from a server to a front of house manager at Distill Table in Lakewood. He said that many of his friends who work in the restaurant industry in Cleveland have said they are afraid to return to work if crowds of people are not going to follow guidelines and establishments aren’t going to enforce them.
“They want to work, but they don’t want to risk their lives to work, and some of these places are putting profits over people,” Gentile said. “Everyone wants to be able to make living, but at what costs? The cost of our lives?”
Gentile believes the responsibility of following guidelines falls on both the guests and the establishments themselves.
“As a bartender and a manager, we force a lot of government-mandated rules on our guests, like I can't over-serve you when you’re drunk—its a mandated rule, and we do enforce that,” Gentile said.
At the same time, he hopes that guests understand that in order for them to enjoy the freedom of going out to eat or grab drinks during a pandemic, basic respect and compassion for the workers who make it possible should be exhibited, and the guidelines should be followed.
“I’m not risking my life to serve you a chardonnay with ice,” Gentile said.
What the state says
During a press conference on Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine said that it was both the responsibility of the establishment as well as the customers and guests going to them to follow social distancing guidelines and regulations.
“We saw in some places customers were not following the rules, and the people who were running the bar were not taking responsibility, so both have to do that,” DeWine said. “The owner of the bar, the people who are running the bar—they have an obligation to control the environment, and if they can not control the environment, they should make the wise judgment not to open, or if they get into a situation where they can’t control it they need to close.”
Restaurants and bars that do not comply will face enforcement of the guidelines, which result in citations that could lead to the revocation of their liquor licenses, and municipal prosecutors may take criminal actions against non-compliant businesses, DeWine said.
“Individuals can be cited, absolutely individuals can be cited. We would not rule that out at all,” DeWine said.
DeWine had a message for those guests seen not following social distancing guidelines who don’t think the virus is a threat to them.
“It is a threat, and if you are not worried about yourself, you should worry about your mom, your dad, your grandparents— you should worry about strangers who somehow might get it from you,” DeWine said. “This is a case in your life—and it may be the only case in your life we hope—that literally what you do every day and how you practice good common sense, keeping six feet away, wearing a mask, that is going to determine whether people live or die.”
