Mark and Terri Stark reopen Sonoma County restaurants for takeout meals after coronavirus shutdown

Seven weeks after restaurateurs Mark and Terri Stark made the difficult decision to close all seven of their Sonoma County restaurants, staff returned to work Friday as doors reopened for takeout at Willi’s Wine Bar, Bravas, Monti’s, Willi’s Seafood, Bird and The Bottle, Stark’s Steak and Seafood and Grossman’s.

As longtime patrons returned for menu favorites like Tunisian carrots, Moroccan lamb chops and smoked duck with polenta at Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa, Terri Stark said she was glad to see life coming back to the kitchens.

“We have to get the blood pumping again in these restaurants. We just need to get things flowing again,” said Stark, who co-owns the county’s largest restaurant group, Stark Reality Restaurants.

Like most restaurateurs around the country, the Starks are facing epic challenges as business models are turned upside down, dining rooms remain closed and the future of the food industry hangs in the balance. Though the Starks are no strangers to tragedy, losing their flagship eatery, Willi’s Wine Bar, during the Tubbs fire and weathering years of additional fires, power outages and evacuations, none of those hold a candle to the devastation of coronavirus.

“During the fires we lost one restaurant and had five others. When the fires were over, they were over, and we could move on and start rebuilding right away. This is so ambiguous. We have no idea when it will end and what it will look like,” Terri Stark said.

She explained feeling like her world was ripped away in a single day in mid-March as they furloughed managers and laid off hourly staff. A total of 415 workers were left unemployed as they locked the doors of the restaurants.

“That was absolutely the worst part of it. In a day the entire company was gone. There wasn’t a slowdown or anything gradual. It was like a light switch turned off. It was so depressing,” Stark said.

After hosting a private pity party for herself for a few days, she decided it was time to move forward.

For the last two weeks, the Starks have manned their newest restaurant, Grossman’s, in Railroad Square with a skeleton crew after doing a soft reopening. Slated for a March 20 grand opening, the restaurant was forced to close before it even officially opened. Terri Stark and her husband have personally delivered bags of bagels and lox to cars awaiting takeout.

“It was so great seeing our guests who said they couldn’t wait for us to come back. That just gave me so much positive juju,” she said.

Reopening the other restaurants wasn’t quite as easy. With hundreds of staff unemployed and dwindling reserves, there were limited options available to fund reopening. Like millions of other restaurants, the Starks applied for the Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable loan from the Small Business Administration that can be used for payroll, rent, mortgage payments or utilities. Though it can temporarily keep restaurants afloat, the PPP loan comes with a litany of requirements Stark said even the federal government doesn’t seem to be clear about. Missteps can result in the loan not being forgiven.

“It’s really complex to navigate. It seems like a great deal, but if the money isn’t forgiven, it’s going to be difficult to take on that debt when we reopen,” she said. Stark declined to say exactly how much money the company borrowed, but described it as 2½ times the monthly payroll for six of their restaurants (Grossman’s was not eligible).

Stark said she and her husband would have reopened the restaurants regardless of the PPP money, but it gave them an emergency bailout to move forward quickly. With 46 staff members now re-employed, they’re taking things one day at a time as they navigate the new idea of takeout only.

“Our food isn’t really designed for that, so when we made the opening menus, we looked for things that would translate well and not look and taste terrible after sitting in a box,” she said.

In the coming weeks, they’ll see how well received their takeout menus become, make changes and staff up accordingly.

At the end of the day, Stark said she’s just happy to be back at work with her staff.

“Look, everyone in Sonoma County feels like we really can’t catch a break, but you know, we just have to stay positive,” she said.