San Marcos businesses stand strong

After a week of being permitted to offer limited dine-in services, some San Marcos food establishments are beginning to see profits once again.

Local businesses have held out through a brutal economic downturn since the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders were issued. Many restaurants quickly pivoted to relying on take-out and delivery, while a few had to shut their doors permanently. Gov. Greg Abbott’s series of orders to begin reopening the state have allowed dinein at 25% capacity as well as movie theaters and retail stores to open their doors.

Some San Marcos establishments were eager to welcome back their customers.

Cody Couch, general manager of Cody’s Bistro, said they have been open through the pandemic and although they've been “treading water,” they wanted to remain in their customers' minds and ready when it came time to reopen.

“Friday, when we opened up was nice because we were prepared. My clientele is ready to get out. You can tell people were tired of being cooped up,” Couch said. “They had to make their own decision to show up or not show up.”

Figaro’s Pizza & Pub, Cody’s Bistro, Chili’s, Saltgrass Steak House, Black’s BBQ and Bill Miller BBQ reported dine-in business has been a success. Most have not had issues keeping to the 25% capacity mark by having staff counting customers while posted at a sanitizing station at the door.

Cafe on the Square and Cracker Barrel both experienced slower business than usual but say it's picking up day by day.

“The biggest challenge is that you have no idea what is going to happen, there is no way to predict the business trends,” Cracker Barrel's Manager Justin Potter said.

Several restaurants said it's been challenging to get the word out about being open.

Some establishments are taking the initiative to add extra safety precautions beyond the standards that Abbott has set: using disposable menus and making disposable silverware available, seating parties 6 feet apart from each other, seating no more than six diners together at one table and of course remaining at 25% capacity.

Chili’s has mandated washing hands and changing gloves every 15 minutes, wiping down door handles and regularly sanitizing many other items. They have developed a parking lot waiting system to accommodate all their guests without making them wait in a crowded lobby.

Collin Destefano, kitchen manager at Figaro's Pizza and Pub, said beverage sales had gone down but when they reopened, “people were just as hungry as ever.” Figaro's power washed the entire store before reopening and got in the habit of using a variety of cleaning products, masks and gloves. Staff have taped off tables to ensure customers are 6 feet apart.

“It’s a neighborhood joint, it's very friendly, and so it’s a difficult time for people to have to sit away from each other,” Destefano said. “But we are doing everything we can for the community.”

Some customers opt to eat in their cars despite the open dining room, Destefano said.

Still, some restaurants are wary of the potential consequences of gathering in their dining rooms at even 25% capacity and have chosen to continue offering take-out only while they watch and wait to see how other restaurants and their customers fare.

Herbert’s Taco Hut has continued to serve its customers curbside for a few weeks and has had great business regardless. Herbert's plans to open its dining room soon.

“We are a small mom and pop shop and we are doing the best we can to get through it,” said Manager Ruthy Rizk. “Mastering a new system, curbside pickup was challenging, but it's been really good considering the circumstances. Our servers are fast and we keep our customers happy.”

Herbert’s staff has been sanitizing everything they touch down to office supplies even though they use gloves and masks and do not have any members of the public in the establishment.

Unfortunately, some restaurants closer to the Texas State campus rely too much on students for their revenues and will likely continue to struggle until the university begins to offer in person classes once again.

“The truth is, it doesn't matter how much we open. If there are no students, there is no market,” said Anton Hartono, owner of Toro Ramen and Poke Barn. “We can only fill two-three tables at a time. One day, the max we had was six tables all day. Delivery has been something we worked on improving over the last year and that has helped, but there is no way we can profit with only delivery.”

Hartono said it has been especially tough without the normal revenues because without a discount or suspension on rent payments, bills have got to be paid.

As for retail, Paper Bear is running a trial period of open hours, according to manager Cathy Natal.

“It’s going okay. We aren’t crazy busy. For right now we are open 1-4 p.m.,” Natal said. “Just to see if it's even worth opening. A lot of people are scared to come out but we are just going to try it out and wait and see.”