Linn’s worker tested positive for COVID-19. Here’s what the Cambria restaurant is doing
Linn’s Restaurant in Cambria had to make quick, serious adjustments to its operation after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
As of July 17, Cambria had reported 11 cases of coronavirus since mid-March.
That number more than doubled since June 24, when Cambria’s case count of five put the town on the county’s tally by community for the first time.
Increased testing likely contributed to that rise, especially after pop-up clinics offered local testing for the virus over the course of four days.
Linn’s Restaurant employee tests positive for COVID-19
Aaron Linn, Linn’s Restaurant general manager, said in a phone interview that the employee, who he declined to identify, is part of the night-shift crew at the eatery on Main Street. The family-run Linn’s empire includes a cafe, gift store and website.
That Linn’s Restaurant staffer hadn’t been at work for a week before their COVID-19 test came back positive, Linn said, and hadn’t exhibited any symptoms while at work.
Still, Linn added, “out of an abundance of caution, we decided to shut down the night crew and quarantine the group.”
He said contact tracing had shown that person was likely exposed to the new coronavirus by a source outside of the workplace.
Quarantining keeps the day and night crews separated, which is how some other businesses handled it when faced with the same kind of situation, Linn said, adding that he didn’t want to identify the others.
In June, an employee in the deli department of Cookie Crock Market was exposed to the coronavirus. Market managers closed the deli for a time and did intense sanitizing.
Linn’s Restaurant also did extensive sanitizing, closing on July 16, after the positive test result was revealed.
Quarantining left the restaurant short-staffed, he said, so it closed at night for at least a few days. There are no concrete plans for when evening service might resume, Linn said.
The eatery can serve its food outdoors on tables set up on the parking lot, he said, which it was already doing during the daytime after state orders ended indoor service once again.
“We’re not set up properly yet for night service outside, with heaters and partitions,” Linn said, adding that those measures will cost thousands of dollars.
Putting table service on the lot reduces available parking slots in an area that’s already short of them, he said.
How North Coast businesses are responding to coronavirus
Many North Coast restaurants and businesses don’t have a dedicated patio, garden or parking area into which operators can expand outdoor table service or shopping, which are allowed during the current shutdown.
That situation was a hot topic at a July 15 North Coast Advisory Council meeting.
Along with the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, that group is trying to coordinate between restaurant and business owners and San Luis Obispo County regulators, including the county Public Works Department, to get eateries and shops encroachment permits.
Many of the restaurants’ seating capacities had been vastly reduced to be properly distanced before the most recent shutdown, Linn said. Now, with far less seating available, many restaurants are struggling even harder to survive.
NCAC advisors discussed the options of restaurants and businesses expanding onto sidewalks in East Village and in select parking spaces in West Village.
An ad hoc committee consisting of most members of the Traffic Committee are huddling in Zoom meetings to wrestle with those options so they can present their findings to the full council, perhaps soon at a special meeting.
The first of those ad hoc meetings was July 17, according to Mike Lyons, NCAC chair.
That session, attended virtually by Linn, Lyons, Igor “Iggy” Fedoroff and Mark Kantor, was designed to “specifically address what to do with the West Village situation,” Lyons said.
“We didn’t come to any agreement yet, but instead decided to do a site visit” the next day “to scope out the whole area and the possibility of adding seating space and even sales space for stores that aren’t food oriented,” he said, while keeping parking and traffic flow in mind.
“We have to walk before we can run,” Lyons said.
“There’s so much to consider,” Linn said. “It can’t be a quick, rash decision. We have to be sensitive to all concerns.”
Linn added with a deep sigh, “I’d rather take a trailer-hitch hit to the shin than continue to deal with all this. It’s tough.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2020 at 11:54 AM.
