Sonoma County restaurants and shops welcome first walk-in customers in months

There’s something intimate about visiting a restaurant and being seated for a meal or stepping into a retail shop to browse “nonessential” merchandise, something you just don’t get from curbside sales.

It’s like a little break from the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s so much nicer to have guests in a restaurant; we’re a people business,” said Josh Silvers, owner of Jackson’s Bar and Oven in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square. “There’s an energy, a tangible buzz you don’t get from people picking up takeout.”

That energy could immediately be felt Saturday afternoon, as people started trickling into Jackson’s for lunch. They sat at tables that were at least 6 feet apart, and though they were wearing facial coverings it wasn’t hard to discern their hidden smiles.

A key milestone for Silvers and the rest of the county, Saturday was the first day local residents were allowed to walk into restaurant dining rooms, retail stores, hair salons and houses of worship.

County health officials gave the green light for a wider swath of walk-in customers on Friday evening with a modified health order that took effect at midnight. The order, which calls for strict safety and sanitation precautions, also allows for a number of outdoor recreational business activities.

These include the resumption of charter boat excursions for sport fishing, and rental of camping equipment and paddleboards and canoes. Swimming and fitness classes will be allowed in many pools for exercise.

It’s the most significant cluster of business reopenings since county health officials shut down the local economy March 18 as a way of suppressing the spread of the coronavirus.

The surge in business activity came on a day when Sonoma County reported an additional 18 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Of those cases, 334 are active, 304 people have recovered and four people have died.

Across the county, shop and restaurant owners welcomed the familiar faces of longtime customers. Oz Childs, a longtime customer of Jackson’s, was the first to sit down for a meal at the restaurant in three months.

“It was always my favorite restaurant pretty much from the day it opened,” said Childs, who ordered a wood-roasted artichoke and a Caesar salad.

On a regular Saturday, before the pandemic, Jackson’s could easily serve 500 customers, said Silvers. He said the restaurant had about 40 reservations for Saturday night and he hoped that would translate to about 80 people ordering a meal.

The bar, where many customers often ate, was taped off, as mandated by the local health order. And a number of tables had to be removed to create greater social distancing.

Silvers said the restaurant is at about 60% of its pre-pandemic seating capacity.

Despite the more subdued atmosphere, Silvers said he was happy to finally get walk-in customers.

Across the street, at Daredevils & Queens, barbers and hair stylists finally resumed work, snipping exaggerated hair lengths and bringing back desired highlights.

Ted Grafe of Santa Rosa brought himself and his son to get haircuts. For Grafe that meant a No. 2 with the clippers on the side, a fade at the bottom and a little bit off the top.

Grafe, director of business development for Santa Rosa accounting firm Moss Adams, said his hair had grown so long it was getting difficult to maintain a “certain level of professionalism” he has to maintain, even during all the Zoom and Webex video conference meetings.

Meanwhile, his son Evan, 12, finally got rid of the mullet his cousin recently gave him for fun (Evan consented, Grafe said). Grafe said the haircut was a slice of normalcy he was craving for himself and his son.

“Fires, PG&E blackouts and now a pandemic. How much more do these kids need to experience in terms of disasters?” he said. “But one thing is for sure, they’re going to be resilient.”

Brauley McNulty, the owner of Devils & Queens, said she was thankful to finally reopen her business, which hosts a number of independent barbers and stylists. New social distancing requirements only meant that the barber side of the business had to lose one chair.

On the salon side, stylists’ stations were already 6 feet apart. However, the salon did lose its waiting room and one of the hair washing stations, she said.

“We’re here now, we’re keeping everything clean, and we’re excited and very happy to be back and moving forward,” she said.

At Montgomery Village, Greg Patterson, co-owner of Sonoma Outfitters, said walk-in customers are crucial to the store’s financial stability. The family-owned clothing and outdoor gear company does very few online sales, and its website is essentially a landing page for the business.

Patterson said curbside sales restored only about 20% of the store’s revenue. On Saturday, customers had lined up out front for the store’s 10 a.m. reopening. Inside, the store was spotless and, as with all other open businesses, there was hand sanitizer at every turn.

“It’s never been cleaner here,” said Patterson, adding that a core group of employees had done “some major spring cleaning” to get ready for Saturday.

Patterson said the shutdown has been a significant financial blow, though he’s been able to stay afloat with the help of a coronavirus small business loan. “That’s allowed us to stay on track with our vendors,” he said.

When Patterson heard that walk-in business would soon be allowed, he said he contacted his vendors to have them start sending the rest of his spring merchandise. He postponed those shipments when the pandemic forced the county to shut down.

The county’s new health order also allows a number of outdoor recreational activities.

Linda Burke, co-owner of the popular Burke’s Canoes in Forestville, and her staff spent Saturday bringing canoes and kayaks out of dry storage and onto the riverfront location along the Russian River. Burke said staff are currently going over necessary health protocols and preparing to resume rentals and other services by mid-June.

“We’re taking reservations,” she said. “Our business office is open to give canoe and kayak trip prices and details.”

With an eye on future openings, state health officials on Friday announced that even more businesses and activities would be given the green light for counties that are being allowed to advance to the third stage of Gov. Newsom’s four-stage reopening plan. Sonoma County is among them.

The third stage includes campgrounds, RV parks and other outdoor recreation amenities, hotels, professional sports without spectators, cardrooms, satellite wagering facilities and racetracks. It also includes museums, galleries, zoos and aquariums, fitness facilities, music, film and television production sites, and family entertainment centers such as video arcades, batting cages and bowling alleys.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.