'I expected a 6-week shutdown': Many restaurant, bar owners relieved by Murphy curfew

It could have been worse.

For the past few weeks, restaurant owners have been bracing for Gov. Phil Murphy to call for restrictive measures due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, even a complete lockdown.

When they heard that the governor called for a curfew of 10 p.m. inside bars and restaurants and a ban on sitting barside in restaurants and bars starting Thursday, Nov. 12, many, who have been dealt a devastating financial blow by the worldwide pandemic, breathed a sigh of relief.

On that date, all restaurants, bars, clubs and lounges that serve food and drink must close their indoor dining areas by 10 p.m. each day and cannot open again until 5 a.m. the next day, Murphy said at Monday’s press conference.

Casino dining also will have to end at 10 p.m., though gaming can continue around the clock. Outdoor dining, takeout and delivery can extend beyond 10 p.m.

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Seating at indoor bars also has been prohibited, as data suggests there has been an increased spread of COVID-19 among bartenders and patrons seated at bars, Murphy said.

Restaurants that had bar seating will be able to add tables inside to make up for the lost bar seating only if tables placed closer than 6 feet apart are separated by barriers.

“No one up here wants to take the broad and all-encompassing actions like those we had to take in March," said Murphy.

He also announced that outdoor dining bubbles will be allowed. The bubbles can be heated and must be used by only one group at a time and cleaned thoroughly between parties.

"I thought he was going to call for a six-week lockdown," said Bryan Gregg, chef at Cafe Chameleon in Bloomingdale, which, he noted, closes at 9 p.m. "This is fine."

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Olivier Muller, chef and co-owner of Faubourg in Montclair, was similarly relieved.

"By 9:30 p.m, all our food is already in," Muller said. "By 10, everyone has been served."

Muller added that he thinks the new executive order not only makes sense but may make it easier for restaurant owners and staffers to control inebriated customers.

"It's hard to control a crowd when they start drinking," he said. "As a restaurant, you constantly have to pay attention to whether they wear masks when they go to the bathroom and so on. I don't think this is a bad resolution." 

Some fed up with state's restrictions

Prohibiting barside seating will have a greater impact on restaurants, gastropubs and sports bars that have lively nighttime activity and stay open past 10 p.m. than it will on restaurants, many of which shut down by 9 or 10 p.m. 

Although Chris Masey, chef and owner of Suburban Bar & Kitchen in Randolph, said the curfew isn't going to affect his place, which closes at 10 p.m., he said he's fed up with the ever-growing restrictions. 

"Up to now, I was a supporter of Murphy," he said. "But nothing has been traced back to restaurants. I worked at places that stayed open after 10 p.m. with kids packed in. With restaurants it should be a different rule."

Besides, he said, "Who knows? In two weeks we may be shut down. We're not out of the woods."

Chris DeLaura, general manager of Grant Street Café, whose parents own the Dumont bar and restaurant, admits he, too, thought Murphy might have shut down indoor dining completely. But the new restrictions, he said, mean yet another tough conversation with his staff.

“I told them, ‘I don’t have an answer, but I’m going to split up shifts as fairly as I can.’ This is really going to hurt them,” he said. “They work off tips. Outdoor dining is coming to a realistic end because it’s so cold. I’ll only be able to have one or two servers on per shift.”

Grant Street closes at 11 p.m., so the hour change won’t affect it too much. However, the new restrictions on sitting at the bar will. DeLaura said he doesn’t understand how sitting at a bar with plexiglass barriers is any different from sitting at a table.

“I understand Murphy is afraid of the rate of transmission, but he’s also putting a lot of people in a tough financial position,” DeLaura said. “It’s to deter the partying in places like Hoboken. But it’s a bit of an overreach. What happens if I’m a worker and I don’t get done until 10 p.m. and want to get food?”

DeLaura also takes issue with the 25% capacity limit indoors.

“It’s a completely arbitrary number,” he said. “Going up to even 30% is another table for me. It’s just nonsensical that we’re still at 25% indoor capacity.”

Other restaurant owners were a lot more upset by the new order.

Under the new restrictions, Melanie Magaziner, who co-owns six restaurants in southern Ocean County, will lose the three dozen bar seats currently allowed at her three open restaurants. The others have closed for the season.

“Someone tell me the science,” she shared via social media. “We have been offering outdoor bar seating since June 15th with zero increase in cases. There will be more added expenses as we build plexiglass dividers and more outdoor furniture,” she shared via social media Tuesday morning.

“Our tent and heater [at Old Causeway Steak & Oyster House in the Manahawkin section of Stafford] is already $5,000+ a month,'' she continued in her post. "This has become a second mortgage for something we will never own. All of the furniture will need to be replaced, as it only can hold up for so long outdoors.”

The restriction on bar seating “doesn’t help our bartenders,” she said after the governor’s announcement, “but we will get creative.”

Bob Wagner, owner of Ott's, a bar and grill with locations in Sewell, West Berlin and Medford, and Braddock's Tavern in Medford, isn't thinking about how to be creative. He's furious.

"This is going to hurt our employees — dishwashers, bartenders, waiters, cooks," He said. And business, of course.

Wagner said his bars just extended hours to midnight during the week and 1 a.m. on weekends.  

"There no proof the uptick in cases is coming from restaurants," Wagner said. "How many times has the governor said it? I was banking on that. Why are restaurants being picked on?"

Matthew Borowski, whose 618 Restaurant in Freehold Borough will lose its six bar seats (down from 25 before the pandemic), said that with this new restriction, “you can’t keep bartenders. They only make money from service bar [tips]." He added, "This destroys any chances for them to make money.” 

Chris Wood, owner of Woody's Ocean Grille in Tinton Falls and Sea Bright, said eliminating bar seating, plus the curfew, could mean a revenue loss of 20%. The loss comes while Wood pays upward of $350 to $400 each for 20 outdoor heaters at his two restaurants.

Esther Davidowitz is the food editor for NorthJersey.com. For more on where to dine and drink, please subscribe today and sign up for our North Jersey Eats newsletter.

Email: davidowitz@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @estherdavido