The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Restaurants

What Area Restaurants Are Doing for the Holiday Season In Light of COVID

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Editor’s Note: The challenges to restauranteurs continue as a new wave (and anticipated) spike in COVID strikes across the country, including New York, and here in Westchester County too. After we went to press with our editions with Stacey Pfeffer’s story which follows, Governor Cuomo issued a new order for statewide SLA, State Liquor Authority, licensed establishments (i.e. these are primarily bars and restaurants) to close their doors at 10 p.m.. “In theory, indoor dining, outdoor dining, you’re at a table, Cuomo stated, “You only take down the mask to eat or drink, but what happens is that setting is very hard to police; it’s very hard for people to maintain the discipline of sitting there eating and drinking and chatting and having a good time and laughing and keeping a mask on.” 

Will local restaurants be using yurts to keep worried diners eating outside as the weather turns cooler? Just as some New York City restaurants have done as the holiday season approaches, area restaurants are looking for ways to attract diners while keeping them safe and also offer enhanced catering/take-out options during the Thanksgiving-New Year period. The statistics for the restaurant industry have been grim since COVID hit with one in six restaurants nationwide shutting their doors according to the National Restaurant Association and more are expected in the coming months.

The restaurant industry in Westchester is under different guidelines than New York City with regards to indoor dining according to Natasha Caputo, Director of Westchester County’s Tourism & Film. While NYC restaurants cap indoor dining to 25 percent capacity, Westchester restaurants are allowed to host indoor diners at 50 percent capacity. But meeting that capacity is challenging even in times prior to COVID. The holiday season is traditionally a “win” or “loss” season with upscale dining establishments noticing as much as a 60 percent decline in profits during a holiday like Thanksgiving when many people choose to cook at home. In times of COVID, restaurants can also no longer rely on holiday office parties to boost revenue during the season.

So what’s a restaurant proprietor to do?

Beloved Chappaqua eatery Le Jardin du Roi has seen its share of challenges from construction downtown to devastating storms to COVID. Still they remain a popular restaurant with a loyal following and their outdoor patio area has always been a choice spot for dining during warmer weather. But as the weather was turning colder, General Manager Wendy Egan knew they had to act fast so they were lucky enough to secure a rental tent, which has been in short supply due to COVID. The tent has a special non-propane heater as well as two openings to ensure proper ventilation and the same rules for spacing out diners applies to the tent as it does to the indoor restaurant. We plan to have the tent out for as long as we can,” said Egan.

Tents do require town board approval which can be a timely process especially when your restaurant is housed in a historic stone train station like the Pleasantville restaurant, Pub Street. Chef/Co-owner Mogan Anthony is actively working to get a tent approved at Pub Street as of press time. He’s also busy planning special holiday menus for take-out that will be available to view online on the restaurant’s website at least ten days prior to the start of the holiday.

While restauranteurs have to cope with the additional costs of tents, sanitizer and heaters, indoors some have also had the extra expense of upgrading their HVAC systems to ensure customer safety. “We upgraded our system to include HEPA filters. Once more people realize that we have HEPA filters, we hope more customers will want to dine inside with us,” says Egan. In addition to dining on-site, Le Jardin du Roi has excellent catering capabilities to help customers get through the holidays including BBQ as well as seasonal favorites such as smoked turkey, cornbread stuffing and mashed potatoes. Menus are posted on their website.

Jay Patel, the owner of Indi-Q in Armonk, is used to a flurry of guests for office holiday parties with a location on Old Route 22 next to several office parks. A popular choice pre-COVID was their elegant lunch buffet but with COVID they have now created individualized lunch boxes which feature an entrée plus rice, a vegetable side and nan bread. They’ve also increased their catering and delivery options for groups and can provide medium or large platters for groups from 15 people to 50 people which can come in handy for holidays ranging from Diwali to Thanksgiving to Christmas.

The roomy outdoor space has heat lamps spaced throughout the entire area and Patel also reports that customers are now getting more comfortable eating indoors versus at the beginning of the pandemic as the restaurant follows stringent protocols set by the CDC, state and local governments.

No matter what restaurants do to entice customers, COVID has been the most challenging time for them. “Local support is so important,” acknowledges Egan. “We always give back to local charities like the Chappaqua School Foundation with gift cards and such.” And now and throughout the holidays is the perfect time to show your favorite restaurant a little local love back.

Chance to Help Raise Dollars to Support Local Health Care Workers and Local Restaurants

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With our healthcare providers & first responders on the front lines tirelessly fighting the Coronavirus pandemic, and with the peak of the infection still two to three weeks away, so many residents are asking how they can help. Likewise, our residents want to help our restaurants which are struggling with the restrictions. Here’s a way to support our healthcare providers and support our local restaurants…..we are raising money to pay for meals from local restaurants which will be delivered to Northern Westchester Hospital, Westchester Medical Center, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital & Phelps Hospital. Participating restaurants include:

Le Jardin
Kittle House
Ibiza Kitchen
Quaker Hill Tavern
Lange’s
Old Stone Trattoria
Pizza Station
Taco Street
Rocky’s
A&S Fine Foods of Millwood

Former New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein stated, “so many of our residents are looking for ways to help those heroes on the frontline of this battle. They also want to help our incredible local restaurants who are really hurting right now. This initiative accomplishes both. The response has been overwhelming. Our residents are so generous!”

Georgia Frasch, Administrator of Facebook group Chappaqua Moms, states “In the absence of having a stock of surgical masks and gowns in most of our closets, we wanted to come up with a way the community could support our health care providers on the front lines. Knowing that these people are working double shifts with limited supplies, not seeing their families and daily exposure to the virus, we are hoping to provide them with some nourishment and comfort to show our gratitude and respect for all that they are doing to keep us healthy”

Deborah Garfield, stated “The grassroots group is in touch with and will be providing meals to several units at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, including the emergency room, various patient floors and the intensive care unit. We will include more local hospitals as we confirm contacts who can arrange for ordering and contactless pick-ups. People should reach out to us if they are affiliated with an institution that wants to be included.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/New-Castle-Donates-Meals-to-Healthcare-Workers?fbclid=IwAR2zV3HzEjMytHstieeGuGPHsLw_kLzFzDVgkjtq2jbRCXZC2SUyKjriK8M

“Restaurant Relief” Site Seeks to Help Hard-Hit Local Restaurants

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One-stop website lists Northern Westchester restaurants’ gift-card vouchers–so customers can “buy today, eat later”

Mount Kisco, NY– March 24, 2020 – Restaurants have taken a big hit from the Covid-19 crisis, as they’ve had to suspend their businesses and lay off hourly staff. Most restaurants don’t have two to three months of capital in the bank to weather this storm.

With that in mind, the Mount Kisco–based website designer Laura Kelly had an idea: What if local patrons could pay for a dining experience at a favorite local restaurant now–then enjoy it later, when the restaurant has reopened?

This week, Kelly launched RestaurantRelief.net, a one-stop site that makes it easy for northern Westchester diners to support their favorite restaurants by buying digital gift cards today when the restaurants most need support, to be redeemed later. The site has already pooled together restaurant listings and gift-card links for 18 eateries in Mount Kisco, Pleasantville, Croton-on-Hudson and other northern Westchester towns. Kelly plans to continue adding restaurants’ gift-card links to the site. “All area restaurants are welcome, and it doesn’t cost them anything to be included,” she says.

Before launching the site, Kelly discussed the idea with a number of local restauranteurs and got enthusiastic feedback from owners such as Bobby Epstein, who runs Kisco River Eatery and Muscoot Tavern. “I just had to furlough 20 people,” Epstein said. “These people rely on a paycheck, and this support would help me give them a stipend.”

Kelly is spreading the word about Restaurant Relief through local press and via social media platforms such as Nextdoor.com. “There are thousands of us in northern Westchester who love to go out to eat in our communities and have gotten to know the people working in those restaurants,” she says. “While we’re all cloistered at home with our smartphones in hand, I wanted to find an easy but meaningful way to show support when it matters most to these folks.”

RestaurantRelief.net will be adding to the list of northern Westchester dining gift-card links. Since not every area restaurant has a digital gift-card or voucher program already in place, RestaurantRelief.net will offer free tech assistance to help restaurants quickly set up secure digital gift card transactions. If a restaurant wants to be listed on the site or wants help with a digital gift-card offer, contact info@restaurantrelief.net.

This story is courtesy of Restaurant Relief.

Area Journalist Diagnosed COVID-19 Positive and Quarantined with Family

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March 19, 2020, Mount Kisco, NY–On Monday, March 16, I was on deadline for the Inside Press, covering the hasty switch local restaurants were asked to make by 8 p.m. to takeout and delivery service only, as coronavirus containment measures grew in severity here in Westchester County.

It was a sad article to write, as I attempted to speak with restaurant owners and managers who were busy, worried, and upset about the impact on their employees. As a former waitress and bartender, I was worried for them too. As a longtime reporter, I knew the community needed to follow this kind of news in as close to real time as possible, so they could see the impact on their favorite establishments and possibly help mitigate it with extra patronage. Due to the time crunch, and the need for social distancing, I conducted these interviews by phone and filed the article as quickly as I could.

Later, as I was doing laundry and tidying up around my house in Mount Kisco, I started to feel a little under the weather. Nothing major, just achy, with a headache. Maybe I felt a chill. I couldn’t take my temperature because our thermometer had broken and there hasn’t been a thermometer to be found in Mount Kisco for some time now.

I put another load in the dryer and called it a day, telling my husband that I hoped I wasn’t coming down with the flu.

The next day–St. Patrick’s Day–I decided to basically stay in bed. My kids are older now, so the college students home working remotely could keep an eye on the sixth grader. I asked my daughter Regina, a freshman at Baruch College-who’s still coming to terms with the cancellation of her softball season-to throw the corned beef in the crockpot and assigned the Irish soda bread to 14-year-old Ted.

Later, I woke up from a nap with chest pain. I have a minor cardiac condition, but I didn’t want to go to the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary since all resources are needed to fight the coronavirus. Instead, I called my internist’s office at Caremount first–my doctor said I had to go in.

Pretty soon I was at Northern Westchester Hospital, where I was handed a mask at the front door, and once in back, I was quickly surrounded by people in masks, clear face shields and yellow gowns. They efficiently got my heart issue under control and swabbed up both nostrils, testing for flu and COVID-19.

I was told I’d be there at least overnight, so they could keep an eye on my cardiac activity, and I was settled in on the sixth floor in isolation, connected to a heart monitor that never showed a problem after my initial treatment.

Today, 48 hours later, I’m lying in bed at home, a 50-year-old woman on day one of a 14-day quarantine that includes my entire family of nine (yes, my husband and I have seven kids.)

My test results only came back this morning, as I was preparing to be discharged. I was shocked that they were positive. Although I have asthma, my lungs had remained resolutely clear throughout my stay, checked often by skilled and kind nurses, and I’m still breathing well right now. My temperature hasn’t been over 100 degrees and is currently normal.

A cardiologist and an internist at NWH judged me well enough to be sent home and weather out the course of this illness with my family. One of the nurses supplied me with a thermometer that had been used on me, otherwise slated for disposal, and made me enough copies of a symptom log sheet to keep track of my whole crew.

By this time, just two days after I entered NWH, six of us are feeling sub-par and are in as much isolation as we can manage, but no one seems dangerously ill. The flu is much worse than what the Kelleys are experiencing so far with COVID-19–a little coughing, aches, fatigue and headaches.

My husband and kids won’t be tested. Both the doctor at NWH and the kids’ pediatrician asked that we operate under the assumption that they have it and monitor any symptoms to make sure no one has to go to the hospital. Nat, 24, spent all day yesterday sacked out, barely moving, but today is eating pancakes and sitting up reading to pass the time. He has special needs, so he keeps talking to me from across the hall, trying to convince me that because he feels better it’s okay if he leaves the room. No dice!

My daughters aren’t too debilitated to FaceTime friends and request coffee delivery from healthy brothers (left outside a closed door, of course.)

When I was told my test was positive, I picked up my phone and checked the Shoprite app, knowing I’d need food delivered. But all the spots were taken. Yes, we’ve done some stocking up–mostly because my husband took this whole thing seriously way before I did. But nine people eat an incredible amount of food, and a 14-day quarantine is quite different than social isolation, which now seems to me a lifestyle of enviable freedom.

Thankfully, family and friends have already offered meals and checked to see what they can get me at the store. Right after I arrived home, a friend from Katonah dropped packages of disinfectant wipes in my mailbox–another friend is currently cooking for us. Many of my older sons’ friends, guys in their twenties, have been texting in, offering to pick up whatever we need.

There’s a lot we don’t know right now. Will we flatten the curve? When will our economy rebound? When can we once more mingle freely with family, friends and co-workers?

I don’t know. I wish I did. I only have a few bits of knowledge to share from my brief initial experience with COVID-19: no one in my family is very sick, so far. I’m the only one with any of the comorbidities I’ve seen mentioned in the news, and I’m well enough to write this article (lying down.) Medical professionals have assured me that they think my family will be fine, and they’ve given me the tools I need to ascertain whether we need further care.

Our local hospital is well-run and reliable. The people who work there are not only friendly and dedicated, but inspire confidence with their professionalism and expertise, and I pray the curve flattens enough not to overwhelm them.

As an aside, the hospital is also continuously customer-service oriented; I was given a mini-loaf of banana bread tied up in a bow at discharge, attached to a card that says: “From our family to yours.”

Not in 14 days, but in some weeks or months more–who knows how many–I very much hope to write the article for Inside Press about the resurgence of the local restaurant business.

Until then, everyone, from my family to yours–stay home and stay safe.

Pre COVID-19: Author Amy Kelley on a happier day in New York City

 

Local Restaurants Close to Patrons, Offer Takeout and Delivery During Pandemic

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March 17, 2020–As the governors of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey work in tandem to try to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus, restaurant businesses, in particular, were asked yesterday to act fast to implement changes.

Restaurants in all three states were asked to close 8 p.m. yesterday, and until further instruction, will be limited to providing food for pickup and delivery.

During this time, restaurants and bars will be allowed to sell alcohol for off-premises consumption. It is hoped that this measure will provide much-needed revenue to those establishments.

According to New Castle’s web site, Meals on Wheels will continue.

We reached several restaurant owners who moved quickly to make changes in light of all the new concerns regarding COVID-19 transmission.

Ignatio Blanco, owner of Ibiza Kitchen, located on King Street in Chappaqua, said he and his staff were working all day yesterday to transition to offering pickup and delivery options only.

“The prices will be cut in half,” Blanco said. “People are having a tough time right now.”

Bistrol 146 owner Marcello Torres said. “We’re going to do takeout, curbside pickup and I may have delivery,” he said, explaining that he’s in discussions with a current employee to see if he can start delivering food.

A couple employees had already left Bistro 146 before the new rules went into effect, Torres said. They have to care for their children who are now home from school, explained. Other staff members may be laid off.

“I don’t know what to do,” Torres said. “It’s sad for all of them.”

Bistro 146 will also suffer the loss of a lot of food that won’t be used up or last until the doors open to patrons again, Torres said. “I hope everyone knows what to do, and does it. Perhaps then we’ll be able to re-open in two weeks – I just don’t know.”

There is not yet a date for these establishments to re-open. In the meantime, Governor Andrew Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to stay home as much as they can, and when out to try to maintain a 6-foot distance from other people to halt the spread of the virus.

“It seems like it’s going to be for a while,” Blanco said.

At Winston in Mount Kisco, Manager Jimmy Branigan commented: “Well, like the rest of the nation, we are digesting something new that’s never happened to us before and doing the best we can. We want to take the proper steps to ensure our staff and guests stay healthy. We hope to get through it as quickly as possible but we understand that this is a pandemic our generation has never seen before.”

Winston is offering takeout and a promotion–a 15% discount with a purchase of $100 more for a gift card.

Large chains might be able to weather the pandemic more easily, closing to patrons for an indefinite period of time may be extremely difficult for local restaurants with individual or few locations.

Also closing: gyms and movie theaters, as well as casinos. Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville already announced closure some days ago, through March 31. They will be issuing refunds to patrons who pre-purchased tickets, the web site said.

The National Small Business Association released a new poll today that shows 3 out of 4 small business owners are “very concerned” about the impact of the coronavirus on their businesses, and 49 percent have experienced decreased customer demand.

Various media outlets such as Forbes and Eater have suggested the purchase of restaurant gift cards as a way to support local restaurants during this time.

It’s also a good time to order t-shirts and other merchandise some local restaurants sell.

Blanco said he does sell gift cards, by phone or on his restaurant’s website. Torres said local residents can also purchase Bistro 146 gift cards.

As for how community members can support his business, Blanco said “Any way is a good way.”

“I hope everything comes to a good end,” Torres said.

Publisher/Editor’s Note: We will be updating this article as time permits too.