Restaurants make the most of last minute changes over the holiday weekend
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Santa Barbara restaurants make do of holiday closures due to COVID-19 over the weekend.
Al Fink visited Shoreline Cafe over the holiday weekend even though the parking lot was closed. Fink said he found a spot down the street on Sunday, and decided to come back again on Monday afternoon after the parking lot and the beach had reopened.
Shoreline Cafe's owner Steve Marsh isn't complaining. He called the crowd manageable.
His general manager Cameron Pyles agrees.
"Parking and the beach closures, honestly made it a little more manageable, obviously it hurt business a little bit, but it at least allowed us to keep our staff as safe as possible and our guests at a much more manageable pace, " said Pyles.
Pyles said they ordered fish for their best selling tacos and other dishes on Friday after learning the beaches would be closed.
They have plenty of drinks they can sell for the rest of the summer.
When Ventura and Los Angeles Counties ordered beach closures many people worried that visitors would come to Santa Barbara County beaches and make physical distancing difficult on the sand and elsewhere.
The City of Santa Barbara had a tie-vote on Wednesday that did not lead to beach closures, but the City ended up following the County's decision to close beaches and parking lots on Friday.
On the Mesa, the Rose Cafe was closed on Monday, but the owner was working to expand the outdoor dining area.
Lalo Barajas is a survivor of the Montecito Mudslide. He lost a loved one and his home and artwork and the pandemic is just the latest challenge he plans to survive.
"We are just trying to do everything we can to see what sticks and what works and yeah it is survival mode." said Barajas.
He improved his outdoor dining area that now takes up several parking spaces.
"I was the first one to do something out here, and when I first did it, I thought you know what, Do I ask for permission or do I ask for forgiveness and I went you know what I am going to ask for forgiveness."
The owners of the liquor store next door invited him to put some tables on the sidewalk in front of their store as well.
Diners at a sushi restaurant nearby said it was the first time they had ordered sushi outside.
The Shores in Oxnard didn't have any outdoor space, so the owner put up a tent on some turf and built a dining area as quickly as possible to make the most the Fourth of July holiday weekend and the summer of the pandemic.
With fewer tourists, restaurants are counting on the kindness of others and on their regulars to dine outside or order take-out.
