Restaurants Find Creative Ways To Stay Open During Coronavirus Outbreak
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - It's closing time in California. The Governor is asking all bars and wineries to close its doors, and for restaurants to cut capacity.
President Trump on Monday told people not to go to restaurants. Now some area restaurants are getting creative with how to stay in business.
"As long as people can eat, as long as people can get those life necessities, survival is far more important," said Chris Barnum, Owner of Localis.
He says staying open is no longer about the money.
"My heart was with our employees. First, my wife and I, this is our income, we don't have other jobs," he said.
After Governor Newsom's announcement, Barnum says he wanted the community to feel safe in his restaurant, and know he could feed them a healthy, fresh meal. Now, he's only allowing 24 people to dine inside the restaurant at one time.
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He's keeping is staff, but cutting their days. He's also taking sanitizing really seriously. His goal is to eliminate cross-contamination.
"We're not just sanitizing what they're touching, but also sanitizing ourselves as we go from person to person because that's how it spreads," Barnum said.
He's created a new program that delivers his tasting menu to neighbors' homes.
"We're going to take the Localis experience to the guest. We're going to a tote process where everything we need for that dinner is inside a sanitized tote. That way there's no cross-contamination during travel," said Barnum.
He's also encouraging others in his industry to use their access to restaurant-grade cleaning products to keep the neighborhood clean. He is asking his employees to take a rag with it and wipe down ATMs and doors they come across.
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"Hey, we're out there trying to be proactive about this. We don't want to just sit in our restaurant and be sad that we don't have guests," he said.
In an already delicate climate, Barnum says the restaurant industry in Sacramento will likely suffer, but he's trying to stay positive.
"We are doing everything we can, to not just help our business, our wallets, but to help the community, too," he said.
The home-Localis experience isn't cheap, it'll cost about $130, and will serve between 4 and 10 people.