Back to patios: What Sacramento-area restaurants expect as they reopen for outdoor dining

The Fig Tree Coffee, Art & Music Lounge’s outdoor patio reopened around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Customers sat down five minutes later.

Tables remain well-spaced, extra masks are available for those who need them and there’s a hold on live music’s return until coronavirus infection rates improve, co-owner Joshua Lickter said. After all, Lickter doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the way he has.

Lickter continues to feel fatigue and foggy-brained two months after testing positive for COVID-19, though his symptoms have improved slightly in the last week. The 49-year-old runner and Incarnation Anglican Church priest has asthma and diabetes. The worst part, Lickter said, was losing his ability to taste and smell coffee, which he’s since halfway regained.

Remaining open strictly for takeout would further minimize the risk of COVID-19 transfer from customers to each other and staff. But Lickter and his wife, Rachel, opened their Roseville cafe in 2017 as a community gathering space, with local art on the walls and live music several nights a week. It’s the kind of place where he watched a couple debate politics for five hours last summer.

That business model doesn’t transfer to to-go service, so The Fig Tree is being as safe as possible, he said.

“(Outdoor dining) has been a lifesaver and business-saver in many ways, and not having that has been really quite difficult,” said Lickter, who quarantined with Rachel for three weeks after his diagnosis and is no longer believed to be contagious.

“It’s my responsibility as a business owner and leader in the community to make sure this business is running safely. This was my feeling before I got COVID, but having lived through and experienced COVID, I don’t want people to get this, I really don’t. The long-term effects can be pretty severe, even if you do survive.”

And so when word got out that the greater Sacramento region’s stay-at-home order was being lifted Tuesday, The Fig Tree sprang back to life. Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed the rumor later that night, officially pushing Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties back into the state’s purple tier.

Most of the rest of the state remains under a stay-at-home order. People are still discouraged from dining out with those from outside their household.

Outdoor dining was banned Dec. 11 as the Sacramento region’s intensive care unit capacity slipped below the statewide 15% threshold. The region’s capacity is now under 10%, but four-week projections show it rising to 19.1%, according to a California Department of Public Health letter sent to Sacramento County supervisors.

In addition to reopening outdoor dining, the Sacramento region’s move back into purple tier authorizes hair and nail salons to serve customers again. It does not allow for indoor dining, though several restaurants have reopened their dining rooms with minimal consequences, particularly in Placer County and the Sierra Nevada foothills.

For restaurants that abide by the rules, outdoor dining poses an opportunity to make up for a dreary winter thus far. El Patio Fresh Mexican Grill in downtown Davis lost roughly 40% of its revenue as a result of the stay-at-home order, general manager Miguel Abraham said. Takeout orders lagged, and though El Patio was available for delivery through DoorDash and ChowNow, the former takes a 15-30% cut from each purchase.

The fast-casual restaurant didn’t actually have a patio until the city of Davis granted temporary al fresco permits last summer. Six tables now stretch out along faux turf over what were once parking spaces, a huge boon as indoor dining remained banned for most of 2020, Abraham said.

“We’re all trying to survive. It’s been a really big financial hardship for us, so anything that’ll take us back to where we were is really going to help out,” Abraham said.

Patio dining will be pretty attractive as temperatures peak in the mid-60s with clear skies overhead for most of the next week. January is normally one of the weakest months for restaurants because of rainy weather and a lack of celebrations after New Year’s, but could end up being more of a moneymaker this year than locked-down December.

Origami Asian Grill co-owner Scott Ostrander isn’t preparing for it to last, though. Customers, who have called Origami 10-20 times per day asking if they can eat inside or on the patio, can enjoy fried chicken or banh mi sandwiches from their to-go containers at Origami’s outdoor tables, he said.

They’ll still have to order online or through a walk-up window. In fact, no one’s allowed inside Origami other than employees, who get free meals on their days off in part to minimize their risk of exposure via grocery shopping and eating at less-stringent restaurants.

“It does seem that this is not going to last. Just that common sense tells you we see surges from holidays, so we should be seeing one from New Year’s Eve right around now,” Ostrander said. “The lockdown could be re-implemented next week, so it’s better to not go all-in one way or another. Rather, we’ll moderately go through this like it seems we’ve been doing this whole time.”

This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:14 PM.