It was a Valentine’s Day worth remembering in Spokane, as restaurants in the Lilac City welcomed customers back for indoor dining at 25% capacity, many for the first time in months.
Last week when Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State would be moving into Phase 2 beginning Monday, leaders across the region including Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward and State Representative Marcus Riccelli asked the Governor if he would allow restaurants to start seating customers indoors a day early to take advantage of the Valentine’s Day holiday, a major revenue generator for the hospitality industry.
“Valentine’s Day is one of our busiest days of the year,” said Debi Moon, General Manager of Clinkerdagger in Spokane, “It’s up there with the Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve it’s one of those where people come to celebrate and take their time out. It’s important to us.”
Clinkerdagger had been sitting customers indoors for a few weeks, adhering to the adjust Phase 1 guidance which allowed for indoor seating if windows and bay doors were opened to create adequate airflow.
“We had been open for a couple weeks with the windows open and it wasn’t bad the weeks it was in the 40s but when it got to the temperature last week, it was cold,” Moon said, adding “You know when you come to enjoy dinner you don’t want to have to bring a blanket.”
Other restaurants in Spokane, like Wisconsinburger, haven’t had customers sitting in the restaurant since the shutdown in the fall. Sunday, they had customers back at their tables for the first time in months.
“We were anticipating Monday and then they said Sunday so we figured what better way than to start running our Valentine’s Day special and then kick it off that way,” said Heather Reid, General Manager of Wisconsinburger, “We love having guests in the restaurant, we’re in this industry this industry because we love what we do.”
Now, many have asked what’s next?
Currently, the state has not released any guidance on what Phase 3, if it will even be called that, will look like. Moon and Reid tell KHQ that what they hope to see in the next step forward is an increase in indoor seating capacity.
“I would say definitely more seating obviously if we can do more safely, then of course,” Reid said.
“Well I’m really hoping that at Phase 3 we can be at 50 percent… because that’s going to make a significant difference,” Moon said.
They tell KHQ that along with more customers, they hope that if seating capacity increases to 50 percent, they may be able to give more hours to their staff or even bring back staff who haven’t been at the restaurant during the shutdown.
