As fall arrives in southwest IL, restaurants finding ways to keep outdoor diners warm
After dealing with shutdowns and coronavirus restrictions all year, metro-east restaurateurs now have a new foe: cooler, fall weather as they serve customers sitting outside.
Propane heaters, tents and fire pits are a few of the things restaurant owners will use to help keep their guests comfortable at places that offer outdoor seating. Restaurateurs have had to contend with unseasonably cool temperatures with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s this weekend.
Bars and restaurants have been banned from serving customers indoors since Sept. 2 because the area’s coronavirus positivity rate had been over 8%.
While the test positivity rate has dropped in recent weeks in St. Clair County, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have refused to grant St. Clair County’s request to loosen the restrictions because the coronavirus positivity rate threshold remains too high in some areas.
The state classifies the metro-east as Region 4, which covers St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Bond, Randolph, Monroe and Washington counties. Restrictions would be lifted if the region’s rate remains at 6.5% or lower. The Region 4 rate has been around 7.1 % to 7.5% on most days in the past week.
Battling fall weather
The average high temperature for this time of the year is in the high 70s but the metro-east was socked with highs in the low 60s over the weekend.
However, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center’s outlook through mid-October offers some relief for the restaurant owners concerned about losing customers because of cool weather. From Oct. 6 to 10, there’s a 40% probability that temperatures will be above average and from Oct. 8 to Oct. 14, the probability for warmer temperatures is 60%.
At The Abbey Espresso Bar and Cafe at 5801 W. Main St. in Belleville, you can sit on a patio that features a fire pit powered by natural gas. This pit was built years before the coronavirus pandemic but it gives warmth to customers who now sit outside.
It throws off a lot of heat, according to Jim Orlet, owner of The Abbey.
“It’s B.Y.O.B.,” Orlet said with a laugh. “Bring Your Own Blanket.”
Robbie Fogarty-Hayden, co-owner of The Wine Tap at 223 E. Main St. in Belleville, said she has purchased three propane heaters for her outside diners. She also will offer packets of hand warmers to customers.
“We’ve done a couple of things creatively on the menu side to bring back some really nice warm drinks,” Fogarty-Hayden said.
Mulled wine and a bourbon snap are some of the new menu items for the fall, she said.
Downtown restaurants such as The Wine Tap have been able to use three side streets for outdoor dining and the City Council has allowed parts of Jackson, High and Church streets to be closed until Nov. 14.
The Corner Chill & Grill at 341 Centreville Ave. has put up a tent and has plans for another one, according to co-owner Cassandra Staley. There also is a fire pit.
Rebecca Wuest, marketing director for 4204 Main Street Brewing Co. in Belleville, said customers enjoy drinking the craft brewer’s products outside and the restaurant features propane heaters on the patio and pavilion while the beer garden has six fire pits.
Barb Hohlt, executive director, of the St. Clair County Health Department, said federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines call for tents to have at least two sides open to provide for proper ventilation.
Hohlt acknowledges the tough times restaurant owners have had to endure this year but she praised the St. Clair County restaurants and bars that are following the guidelines as the county’s positivity rate has remained below 8%.
“These folks are doing the right thing,” she said.
Hohlt disagrees with the tactics taken by some metro-east restaurant owners that continue to offer indoor services.
The owners of The Fainting Goat restaurants in Breese and Pocahontas did not stop indoor service on Sept. 2 and on Sept. 17 the Illinois State Police issued a citation to the restaurant’s Pocahontas location for an alleged violation of the Illinois Department of Public Health Act.
Tom DeVore, the attorney who is representing The Fainting Goat and who has filed lawsuits against Pritzker regarding the governor’s authority to restrict businesses, said the ticket is pending and that the Bond County state’s attorney’s office had not yet taken action on it.
DeVore has said the citation has “no merit” based on his interpretation of state law.
The positivity rate in Bond County has ranged from 8.9% to 13% in the past week but DeVore said it doesn’t make sense statistically to compare a rural county to larger counties such as Madison and St. Clair counties, where far more people are tested.
Reasons for indoor dining ban
Pritzker and Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, on Thursday during a news conference addressed a question about why bars and restaurants are targeted during the COVID-19 pandemic that is linked to over 8,600 deaths in Illinois.
Ezike said contact tracers find that the No. 1 source of exposure is likely someone’s place of employment but that bars and restaurants “come up as a common exposure place.” Ezike noted there are businesses that are not being closed but that bars and restaurants are “on top of the list” of places where restrictions can be imposed.
“The goal isn’t to punish bars and restaurants,” Ezike said. “The goal is to be able to get these numbers down so that we don’t have rampant infection transmission throughout our community that makes everyone that much more at risk.”
DeVore took issue with Ezike’s comments about restrictions on bars and restaurants.
“What they’re saying is that they’re pinpointing bars and restaurants because they believe most of the positive cases are coming from places they can’t control,” DeVore said.
Pritzker said studies across the country and the world have shown “the ease with which the virus is transmitted in these environments.”
“I just want to be clear this isn’t something that got made up somewhere,” Pritzker said. “In fact, there’s been a high focus on this as you know from very early on but there’s now a lot of data to support and a lot of studies to support the idea that bars and restaurants are particularly of concern in terms of transmission.”
The state’s rules for bars and restaurants in the metro-east include:
No indoor service permitted. Takeout and outdoor service is allowed.
No dancing.
Reservations required for each party.
All bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m.
Video gaming permitted to continue.
The first full day for the new rules was Sept. 2. Indoor dining also had been banned from mid-March to June.
This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
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Bars and restaurants in southwestern Illinois continue to face coronavirus restrictions imposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health. What do you want to know about this issue? Email us your comments or questions to newsroom@bnd.com.
