Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants are facing another round of temporary closures related to COVID-19 cases and exposures on staff due to the surge of the omicron variant as 2021 comes to a close.
Restaurants have grappled with the effects of the pandemic for two years now, including state-mandated closures, a tight labor market, rising ingredient costs and supply chain issues. They’ve also had periods of COVID-19 cases on staff before, but this surge comes at a time most restaurants consider their peak season — the holidays.
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Sarah Carlock, who runs Amor Y Queso in Deep Ellum along with one part-time employee and the occasional contract worker, says she and her family tested positive for COVID-19 just after Christmas.
Carlock designs and builds most of the food boards (stylish assortments of meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, nuts, spreads and sweets) for her company, so staying open wasn’t an option. “Especially when it comes to food preparation and being so customer-facing, it’s just not a risk we were willing to take,” Carlock says. “It wasn’t so much of a question of closing but how I would make it up to everyone who had orders for New Year’s. We are mostly a pre-order business.”
She shut down orders for the next couple of weeks and canceled orders for upwards of 15 customers who had pre-ordered boards for holiday parties. She has also offered discount codes for future orders. Carlock, her husband and two daughters have had mild-to-no symptoms thus far, and she hopes to be back up and operating by Jan. 9.
Carlock adds that the disruption to her business is “considerable.” “If we can get through it with minimal physical disturbance, that’s great. But business disruptions are a different story,” she says. “For many businesses, this is our peak season, and it’s really detrimental to be closed this week.”
In Grapevine, Easy Slider at Harvest Hall has temporarily closed due to a COVID-19 exposure on the team. An Instagram post stated: “We’ll be back once everyone is negative and past quarantine protocols, hopefully before 2022.” The Deep Ellum location is still operating, but several food truck events have been canceled, including a New Year’s Eve appearance at Double Wide.
In Fort Worth, Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine has closed the remainder of this week, including New Year’s Eve, because COVID-19 cases have left the restaurant too short-staffed to operate. “Because of the new Omicron variant, we do not have enough staff this week to provide the level of service that our customers have come to expect,” owner Jon Bonnell announced on Facebook Tuesday. The restaurant will still provide curbside meals through Thursday.
Also in Fort Worth, Pizza Verde, a new plant-based pizzeria, will be closed the rest of the week. Originally reported by Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the pizzeria posted a note on Facebook Tuesday that they will close until Jan. 2 because “One team member has COVID, while two others just happen to be regular sick.”
“Prioritizing the health of our team and our customers has to come first, but we’d be lying to pretend it isn’t scary to lose a week of sales after only 5 weeks of being open,” the note continued.
Uchi Dallas also temporarily closed for a few days and sent notes to diners, canceling their reservations “due to extreme staffing issues.” They also offered a 25% discount toward a future meal.
“This week has been a challenge as we continue to make real-time business adjustments to manage the ever evolving conditions of the pandemic. Due to the recent surge in exposure and positive cases, we unfortunately did not have a full team to provide our guests with exceptional service,” says Amber Quist, chief branding officer of Hai Hospitality restaurant group in a statement. “We made the decision to temporarily pause service at Uchi Dallas on 12/27 and 12/28 and at Uchiba starting on 12/26. Uchi Dallas plans to re-open for service as early as 12/29, while Uchiba plans to open later in the week once our team has had time to regroup and recover.”
Restaurants don’t have to close if they have a positive COVID-19 case on staff, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though they’re urged to notify health officials and anyone they’ve come in contact with.