Restaurants Make Outdoor Dining Work

COURT HOUSE – Roughly 700 restaurants of all varieties and cuisines are making outdoor dining work.
With the threat of COVID-19 looming and cases beginning to mount, Gov. Phil Murphy issued Executive Order 104 (https://bit.ly/2Z1dosj) March 16. That order limited dining establishments of all types to offering “only food delivery and/or takeout services.” For three months, owners of eateries from ice cream parlors to white tablecloth fine dining locations shuttered their dining rooms and struggled to make a living through takeout orders. Over 3,000 people involved in food preparation and service were suddenly unemployed.
At that point, in mid-March, New Jersey listed 178 positive cases of COVID-19. As of June 22, there were over 169,000, with more than 12,000 fatalities. Three months after those cases doubled and redoubled with alarming regularity, the curve flattened, and the rate of new cases slowed dramatically. Murphy issued a multi-phased recovery plan, and Stage 2 of that plan began June 15, with outdoor dining permitted.
Municipalities across Cape May County scrambled to find ways to support restaurants, allowing the use of public right-of-ways as long as appropriate insurance and indemnifications were in place. Many communities relaxed open container laws, permitting public consumption of alcohol to the horror of some permanent residents who feared family resorts would come to resemble New Orleans.
Some municipalities tightly controlled public consumption. In Stone Harbor, one can legally enjoy an open-air libation only while seated at an outdoor dining table. The ordinance change specifically requires that the individual be seated.
In other towns, “open container zones” were established, widening the options for public consumption, but limiting it to easily demarcated areas. North Wildwood established such zones in its primary bar and restaurant district.
Some towns found the distribution of restaurants and bars made defining areas complicated. Cape May found itself approving open consumption on the beaches, the Promenade, and numerous city streets, essentially any street or portion of a street that houses an eligible bar or restaurant.
In Sea Isle City, Mayor Leonard Desiderio said that the city plans “to offer broad latitude” to the businesses.
The state established social distancing, hygiene, and capacity regulations for outdoor dining, but otherwise left the municipalities the authority to get creative with site plan approvals. The municipalities established a process for such approvals, with most centering that process on the local zoning officials. Many towns made it clear that they did not see it as their job to check too closely on things, like the distance between tables or other health regulations established by the state.
Municipalities differed on how they approached regulations for serving times, the use of outdoor music, and requirements to remove or disassemble the tables and chairs at the end of each day’s service.
The actions municipalities took were often by resolutions that limited the easing of regulations to the summer and a reasonable fall shoulder season. Almost all called for sunset of the new permissions in November, about the same time that the state Alcohol and Beverage Commission’s (ABC) temporary permit process ends Nov. 14. The ABC process allowed establishments with state liquor licenses to easily gain permission to expand their premises in order to incorporate liquor service at street and parking lot tables.
The COVID-19 outbreak saddled municipalities with the added burden of policing this extra outdoor activity and more flexible public consumption rules with fewer officers. The virus forced the closure of the county Police Academy before the usual complement of Class II special law enforcement officers (SPLO) could complete the mandatory training program. In a normal summer, Stone Harbor might have as many as 15 SPLOs. This summer, the most they can hope for is three, and that is if luck breaks in the borough’s favor.
Municipal police departments up and down the shoreline are short-staffed this year. In Cape May, Police Chief Anthony Marino made the staffing issues known to Cape May City Council, along with his tepid support for any expansion of open consumption.
While the approaches differ, each county municipality has taken steps to aid one of the most critical business sectors in the county tourist-based economy.
The restaurants trained their staff in new requirements, set up sanitation protocols, and implemented site plans that incorporate required distancing in an effort to earn a fraction of the revenue that a normal summer would produce.
Meanwhile, most keep an eye on another set of numbers, the COVID-19 case count. The county’s case count remains the lowest of any county in the state. The state’s health metrics continue to trend well, forcing a concerned public to become familiar with testing positivity rates and rates of viral retransmission. Yet, the outside world presents storm clouds on the horizon.
The World Health Organization June 21 recorded the greatest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases since the virus first emerged in Wuhan, China. On the same day, several states experienced spikes in new cases.
For Missouri, the first day of summer was also the day the state broke its own one-day-old record for new virus cases in a 24-hour period. Shelby County, Tennessee also experienced its largest day-to-day increase in cases. A list of similar occurrences elsewhere in the nation would be a long one.
Cape May County restaurants are making outdoor dining work because that is the job in front of them and the only option afforded them. This is not a year of strategy, but rather of tactics. Plans went out the window months ago. Now, the task is to do the best they can with what they have.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.