What loosened COVID-19 restrictions mean for downtown State College’s bars, restaurants
Christina Law is under no misconceptions: She knows plenty of challenges remain for her restaurant in downtown State College.
But the regional general manager at BRGR, West College Avenue’s burger-based eatery, still couldn’t help but grin about Sunday’s loosened COVID-19 restrictions across the state. After all, at this point in the pandemic, every step forward — no matter how small — is worth savoring.
“This will be as close to normal as we’ve been since last March,” Law said nodding, “which is still not anywhere even close to normal.”
On Easter Sunday, Gov. Tom Wolf’s amended March 15 order will finally go into effect — allowing self-certified businesses to increase capacity from 50% to 75%, permitting bar service, eliminating 11 p.m. curfews for alcohol and taking back the food requirement to buy a beer or cocktail. It’s an order that grateful employees like Law are embracing, but it’s also something many owners and officials say isn’t as significant as it may seem on paper.
Take the increased capacity, for instance. Restaurants and bars are still required to keep groups 6 feet apart, so businesses can’t actually increase capacity unless they have the space — which many locations in downtown State College do not. The return of bar service also means that tables must now be at least 6 feet away from the bar, so Law wondered aloud if she might actually lose some tables to gain some bar seats.
“We’ve just been trying to figure it out,” she said Friday. “Where are we going to put these tables so we’re staying compliant?”
That’s not to say Law is complaining. With her alcohol sales roughly halved during the pandemic, Sunday is still an overall win for BRGR. (Plus, Law said, she and her husband can’t wait to dine at the bar again themselves.) But Law echoed a reality shared by many others: Although Sunday may be a sign of progress for downtown State College, it’s no cure-all after profits were slashed the last 12 months.
“This industry is not even close to being out of the woods,” agreed Curtis Shulman, the operations director for Hotel State College & Co., which includes downtown businesses like Bill Pickle’s Tap Room and Zeno’s.
The financial loss to downtown businesses — and businesses around the county — has been significant. According to the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, Centre County’s official tourism promotion agency, the county’s economy lost an estimated $437.5 million from the pandemic in 2020 alone.
Anecdotally, several downtown bars and restaurants told the Centre Daily Times they’ve lost more than half of their anticipated revenue since the pandemic began.
“I think we’re going to see that it’s still tricky to operate profitably,” Shulman added. “Now if you get a break-even month, you’re pretty excited. Getting to the point where we can turn a profit? There’s a lot of work to be done yet.”
At the Federal Taphouse on Fraser Street, general manager Jessica Wargo intimated more of the same. She didn’t see Sunday’s changes as significant, instead labeling them a “small step forward.”
But, like every business, the destination known for its fries cooked in duck fat will still experience a net gain from the loosened restrictions. The reopening of Federal Taphouse’s 35-seat bar will see its bartenders-turned-waiters get their jobs back. And the restaurant/bar plans to slowly increase its hours based on demand.
BRGR will follow suit by by extending its closing time by one hour to midnight, at least in the short-term. Pickle’s will shut down at 2 a.m. And Zeno’s at 1 a.m.
The extended curfew is especially important for college bars, as the hours between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. can prove pretty profitable. Sunday’s other changes will have varying impacts. Resuming bar service? All three interviewed managers/directors said it was more of an emotional victory than a financial one. Increased capacity? Negligible. Not having to order food to order a beer? A huge relief for smaller kitchens that sometimes received orders just to satisfy regulations.
And overall?
“The loosened restrictions will certainly help and is a small step toward chipping away at the devastating blow that the hospitality industry has taken,” said Lee Anne Jeffries, executive director of the Downtown State College Improvement District.
For Law, whose BRGR restaurant opened just seven months before the pandemic, it’s been difficult to anticipate what will come next. Suppliers have lacked supplies, takeout orders have altered the business by tripling, new cleaning products have damaged some tables — and weekly meetings turned into daily meetings, which turned into twice-a-day meetings.
Law isn’t sure whether the restaurant industry will ever return to the old “normal.” And she doubts a single restaurant in State College would shout, “We’re good!” after Sunday’s changes. But she, like many others across the county, hopes the community understands businesses are doing all they can to keep customers safe while staying afloat.
“There’s a lot of restaurants like ourselves, locally owned and operated, that are following the rules,” she said. “And, hopefully, people will want to come out and support us and support other restaurants — because we’re trying our best.”
