North Coast businesses enjoy some relief as Highway 1 reopens, COVID rules ease
Now that San Luis Obispo County has moved into the red tier of California’s COVID-19 restrictions, some local entrepreneurs say their restaurants and shops are more than ready for indoor traffic.
But those business owners say they’re keeping their options open as long as they can, in case higher coronavirus case counts tip the county back into the state’s more restrictive “purple” tier.
This has been a tough time for everybody, but particularly for North Coast businesses and the customers they serve. They’ve been hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic by shutdowns of indoor sales and service and the closure of the iconic Hearst Castle as well as a couple of heat waves and the long-lived, intense Dolan Fire near Big Sur.
The wildfire bumped up against Highway 1, so for four weeks, Caltrans closed varying portions of that stretch of the popular All-American Highway and scenic byway. The road reopened fully at 8 p.m. Sept. 21.
The effects of the Dolan Fire have re-proven an old adage — usually applied during winter storms that produce landslides — that says the closer a business is to a closure of Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel, the more impact that shutdown is apt to have on the bottom line.
SLO County moves into COVID-19 red tier
In the red tier, restaurants can once again serve food indoors with restrictions, movie theaters can reopen in a limited fashion and places of worship can offer inside services. All of those sectors must observe social distancing, encourage face coverings and hand washing, and increased sanitation protocols.
The red tier classification means coronavirus spread in the county is now considered “substantial” but is no longer “widespread,” according to state guidelines.
As of Sept. 29, the county had a positivity rate of 2.0%, well below the 8% threshold needed. In the cases-per-100,000-tests metric, the county sat at an adjusted rate of 5.9 as of that date, below the threshold of 7 needed to remain out of the purple tier.
The county must remain in the red tier for at least three weeks before progressing to the less restrictive orange tier, according to state guidelines.
How are Cambria restaurants doing?
While some Cambria business owners say they’ve been doing pretty well lately — in part because travelers who intended to go from there to Carmel weren’t able to do so, others say it’s been rough going.
Miguel de Alba, owner of Manta Rey Restaurant in San Simeon, said that “the weekends are good, but during the week business is VERY slow.”
He said the restaurant has been seeing “a lot of local tourism” from Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Central Valley on weekends.
“But we really depend on Hearst Castle, Highway 1 traffic and international tourism,” de Alba said. “I’m afraid that business won’t pick up until Hearst Castle reopens and the pandemic is over.”
He said that the county’s shift to red tier may not have a huge impact for his restaurant, “except our diners will be able to sit inside where it’s warm, instead of in the makeshift dining room we set up in the parking lot. That San Simeon wind is cold!”
Shanny Covey, co-owner of Robin’s Restaurant in Cambria, said that “I can’t tell how much the closure has affected business because this year is so different there isn’t any easy way to measure changes.”
“We are getting hardly any tourists from abroad, like we would normally,” she said, but she expects that’s more because of the coronavirus pandemic than the fire-caused highway closure.
Covey said her business was down about 9% this summer and more for the whole year, “which I think is pretty darned good.” Robin’s was “definitely affected by the wildfires,” because business was slower on days when the smoke was blanketing the area, Covey said, adding that “we closed one smoky day.”
The longtime local restaurateur is glad San Luis Obispo County has shifted into the COVID-19 red tier, and hopes it will hold or go to orange soon.
“I’m ready to seat a few tables inside,” she said, “but in all likelihood, we will still primarily seat outside until the weather changes. I’m not sure if folks feel that comfortable with inside seating yet.”
“As the weather gets wetter and colder, the seating outside will be much less,” she said.
David Stoothoff, owner of Madeline’s restaurant in Cambria’s West Village, said that “we have actually been busier overall for September compared to last year, but part of that is being open for lunch.”
“The smoke was pretty bad,” he said, “but people may have come here from places where it was worse, so we were able to fill our tables pretty consistently.”
How COVID-19, wildfire affected North County businesses
Other businesses have made operational shifts, too, with some being closed for a time, open only by appointment or open only on three- or four-day weekend periods.
Claudia Denny, co-owner of Alexander-Denny Jewely Studio in Cambria, said that because of the pandemic, “we’ve been closed for most of six months, only being open to a few appointments. And for four of those months, we were closed entirely.”
With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, “I can’t just let the public just wander in here. It’s too small,” Denny said. However, she and co-owner and husband Shawn Alexander plan to start opening their upstairs Burton Drive business Thursdays through Saturdays, maybe from noon to 4 p.m.
Pacific Hair Salon owners Ingrid and Andrew Turrey got their homeowners’ association permission to build The Porch at Pacific Hair on some of the Cambria building’s less convenient parking spaces. As long as it’s allowed, they’ll leave it in place, Ingrid Turrey said.
“We have clients who aren’t comfortable being inside, so we are trying to accommodate them,” she said, cutting their hair on the porch, weather permitting. “We are hoping to leave it up for a bit if possible, just in case county numbers go back up and we get closed down again.”
“It’s been amazing, all the support from our sweet little town” during coronavirus-related closures, Turrey said, calling it “super heartwarming.”
Rachelle Stamball, owner of True Skin in Cambria, exulted in response to The Cambrian’s online survey that “my skin-care salon can open again! Personal services have taken a hard hit.”
Carolyn Chaffee said her Estrella Kennels business in Harmony is “limping along at 40% and GRATEFUL! My business will pick up when everyone feels that air travel is safe.”
Some entities have found — and provided — benefit in the pandemic effect.
Cambria Technology Collective’s Jeremy Main said more people and businesses have sought technological help from the nonprofit, including “first responders recovering from illness to school-age children studying remotely to all affected by the pandemic who ask for our assistance.”
“We are working diligently to meet the ongoing needs of those who our mission statement of public benefit will allow, by providing low- to no-cost computer and networking equipment, electronics, tutoring and the essential and environmentally beneficial service of a free drop-off location for e-waste collection,” he said.
Main added that the collective appreciates all the support for their work “and to those who sincerely in need of our non-profit assistance.”
Parklets can stay, for now
Mel McColloch is the longtime president of the Cambria Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. The day after the county went into the red tier, he called “John Grimm at SLO County Public Works, and he has agreed the county will allow the restaurants to continue with the outside dining through the red tier and likely into the orange tier,” McColloch said, because in both those tiers, allowable dining capacities inside the eateries still will be reduced.
That means North Coast outdoor dining parklets in public parking spaces and on wide-enough sidewalks can stay where they are, for now.
While serving customers in the parklets can be difficult, given the extra distance from kitchen to dining table and the problem of keeping the food hot and crisp a little longer, the little sheltered bump-outs into the parking spaces have been a fiscal godsend to restaurants struggling to survive only on meal take-out and delivery services.
The reduction in parking can make it difficult for neighboring shops, however, especially in Cambria’s East Village, where a public parking area has been mostly blocked off following an August fire that destroyed the A Matter of Taste gourmet-and-cookware shop.
In an e-blast message sent by the chamber later on Sept. 23, McColloch told chamber members and others, “Be safe out there and wear your masks, and practice proper distancing. We are gaining on the virus at this time, and do not want to lose any ground we have gained.”
Stoothoff, the Madeline’s restaurant owner, seems grateful for the county’s new red-tier status, although 25% seating in such a small restaurant isn’t much.
“I don’t have a lot of hope about even staying on this level, considering how many new cases we have had” recently,” he said. “I will just keep on trying to roll with the punches of 2020 and do what we can.”
