‘It’s like Groundhog Day’: Restaurants, businesses deal with continuing restrictions

GALENA–On Tuesday, May 5, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the Restore Illinois plan to allow the state to return from the coronavirus lockdown in a phased approach. Even though there is a glimmer of hope for normalcy at some point in the future, many business owners in the area are still bracing for a continuation of the issues that they have faced and dealt with over the past two months.

Months of curbside

Recently, Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa has begun reopening her state and the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently overturned Gov. Tony Evers stay-at-home mandate allowing bars, restaurants and other venues in Wisconsin to open their doors.

“This weekend will be telling,” said Dino Rigopoulos, owner of the Log Cabin and Gobbie’s. “We will see how many continue to stay here and how many will go across the bridge to get something to eat. It is almost like Jo Daviess County has the plague. Dubuque is now open, Wisconsin is now open. Our customers that we did have could easily go to Dubuque now.”

Mike Meyer, owner of The Other Side and Incognito Bar in East Dubuque, is facing this challenge head on as his establishments are located only a couple miles from states that are open for business.

“This creates a huge challenge going forward,” said Meyer. “Dubuque bars and restaurants are open and Wisconsin is open. (Pritzker’s) plan puts us into July or August. The only positive is we will see the flaws of Wisconsin and Iowa first. I listen to what other states are doing. How should laws for me be different than two miles away? Just because we are in the same state as Chicago?”

The long journey of the coronavirus pandemic began in mid-March when Pritzker introduced the stay-at-home order for two weeks.

“We took that time to embrace the closure,” said Rigopoulos. “I thought we’d take a couple weeks to recharge the battery and prepare for the busy season.”

Rigopoulos said it was unfortunate timing though as the downtown businesses were gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day weekend and preparing for the upcoming Wine Lovers Weekend.

“Those are big weekends,” said Rigopoulos.

Rigopoulos remembers he first started to hear rumblings of the potential of a closure when he heard about San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order.

Bruce Glasgow, owner of Victory Cafe, was in Florida celebrating spring break with his family when the orders were put into place.

“We erred on the side of caution when this first happened,” said Glasgow. “None of us had any issue, we decided what was best for the staff.”

Over night, Galena became a shell of itself when restaurants and bars were forced to only offer curbside service.

“We went from 40 restaurants to curbside in weeks,” said Glasgow. “We are all trying to do what we can.”

“We are Portillo’s,” said Rigopoulos. “We are now using the Portillo’s business model. Our business model is wrapping things up to go all of a sudden.”

“Our takeouts and lunch meals have done really well,” said Meyer. “It is not near where we normally are, though. The community has been super supportive for keeping us open.”

Rigopoulos said when he started seeing restrictions on meat products in the stores, that gave him the idea of the take-home steak kits.

“People are going to be home anyway,” said Rigopoulos. “This gives them the opportunity to bond as a family and cook together. That gave us the idea to pivot to selling raw steaks.”

Glasgow is also trying new approaches to his menu. Last weekend, Glasgow began grilling out brats and hot dogs to sell at the cafe.

“We are going to see if we can bring people back down to Main Street,” said Glasgow. “Every week we are trying to take advantage of something new. We are also taking our time to figure out our approach, paper menus have been printed and we are trying to figure out what half of our restaurant will look like.”

“I have always had confidence in business. I always knew what to do and pivot to improve,” said Rigopoulos. “Right now, you just don’t know what to do or what to expect.”

A phased approach

Pritzker’s phased approach is in five phases and when introduced, everyone in the state began in phase two. The phases will be moved through based on a regional approach with Jo Daviess County in the north central region.

“Up to this point, people knew we need to stay home to get through this,” said Meyer. “It is difficult when government leaders keep changing it two weeks at a time.”

Rigopoulos said that the Illinois Restaurant Association has informed its members that June 26 would be the earliest that restaurants could reopen for dine-in service in Illinois.

As the current phase structure stands, restaurants will not be able to open until the region hits phase 4. Even then, the restaurants will only be able to open with a limited number of people in the establishments.

The Illinois Restaurant Association is currently calling on Pritzker and the General Assembly to modify the Restore Illinois plan to allow restaurants and bars to resume their dine in service in a limited capacity during phase 3.

“(The current) approach underestimates the restaurant’s ability to reopen operate safely with enhanced public health measures in place,” stated Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association. “Restaurants are the cornerstones of every county in Illinois, from Sangamon to Cook to Champaign to Rock Island–and they all desperately need help from the state of Illinois in order to survive now and thrive in the future. Under the current plan, even in counties that have experienced minimal cases of COVID-19, their restaurants will not be able to possibly resume dine in service until June 26 at the very earliest. We are asking that the State give them an opportunity to see a light at the end of the dark tunnel of this pandemic. Unnecessarily waiting until the end of June or beyond does not do that.”

There is a potential that the shutdown could extend to nearly four months. Not only are restaurants suffering, but every store in the area is suffering as many shops are having to restructure their business model on a whim and have been able to restart curbside services.

“Everybody is suffering,” said Rigopoulos. “It is crazy.”

“(Pritzker) keeps saying people would travel county-to-county in the state, but people here in East Dubuque are travelling to Grant County and Dubuque County,” said Meyer.

“Every state has different rules,” said Rigopoulos. “It is messed up. We are in an odd area.”

Area store owners were creative on their approach as some utilized sidewalk sales and some had tables outdoors for customers to dine.

However, after receiving word from the state, Galena’s police chief Lori Huntington and city administrator Mark Moran released a letter detailing what was and wasn’t allowed, which put an end to the sidewalk sales and limited store openings that some thought the phased approach allowed.

Many business owners ended up receiving the Paycheck Protection Program funding, but Rigopoulos said it is hard to bring everyone back to work when there are limited consumers.

Rigopoulos and Meyer both commented on the fact that even though they may be limited on opening, they are unsure how to staff for that situation.

Business owners have commented on the sad state of downtown and how the typically busy streets are now eerily quiet.

“It is just sad to look at,” said Rigopoulos. “It sucks, we have really good employees. The first thing you think about is your employees and the young professionals that are seeing what they wanted to do in life.”

Rigopoulos said this reminds him of a movie.

“It feels like Groundhog Day,” said Rigopoulos. “I feel like I am Bill Murray and you wake up to this thing that is always recurring, a recurring nightmare. It is like you are in Sandusky and you are waking up to the same thing. You see the same people; it is the same thing everyday. It is crazy. I feel like I am in that movie.”

Hurting, but thankful

Even though there is a phased approach businesses are hurting just as much as they were before.

“We have had a lot of local support,” said Rigopoulos. “The local clientele has been great and supported all of the local businesses. We don’t want to see empty, vacant storefronts.”

“We are thankful for our customers,” said Glasgow. “Little mom and pop shop places around have been forgotten because you can’t sit at the diner and drink coffee.”

Meyer said the support from the East Dubuque community has been overwhelming during the pandemic.

Meyer has also been giving back to the community in finding creative ways to help others including an Easter egg hunt in April. His business has also donated meals to Mercy and Finley Hospitals in Dubuque as well to people in town who were struggling or couldn’t leave their homes.

“The support from the community has been insane,” said Meyer.