Coronavirus Diaries (5/18): Oregon Reopens
In this ongoing series, I have been posting the reflections of brewers and cidermakers as they deal with the unfolding COVID-19 coronavirus. In today’s post, we hear how two breweries plan to open now that Governor Kate Brown has opened 31 of the state’s 36 counties.
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Last Thursday afternoon, Oregon Governor Kate Brown gave the green light for counties in Oregon to reopen businesses provided they met certain criteria: they’ve seen a 14-day decline in Covid-19 hospitalizations and emergency room visits for Covid patients are fewer than the average flu admissions. Qualifying counties must also have adequate testing, contract tracing capacity, isolation facilities, and health care capacity. Thirty-one of the state’s 36 counties qualified (excluding all three Portland-area counties).
Pubs and restaurants were included in the re-open order, again with certain stipulations about how they operate. This is a big deal, putting Oregon on the vanguard of states starting to reopen. Oregon is a large state with vast stretches of unpopulated deserts and mountains. The second congressional district represented by Greg Walden is larger than every state east of the Mississippi but has only around 700,000 residents. Harney, Malheur, Grant, and Baker Counties, collectively bigger than West Virginia, have all of 22 confirmed cases. The three metro-area counties, by contrast, have 52% of cases. But even more noteworthy: Oregon has been hit far more softly than most states. We have 3,623 cases and 137 deaths; the state is fourth best in cases per capita, sixth best in deaths per capita. (The state is well below average on testing, however.) So this seems like a defensible, data-driven approach with many guardrails.
It did come as a surprise. On Friday morning, we were all scrambling to find out what the details were and how people were managing the potential change. I put out some feelers to breweries in these counties to find out how they were handling things. Two of the following are fairly long, but they are both rich in information about the breweries’ thinking. In particular, Zach Beckwith gave a very detailed account of how Bend Brewing is approaching things—lots of great info there.
Bend Brewing Company, Deschutes County
Confirmed Cases: 96. Deaths: 0.
Zach Beckwith, Head Brewer: First off, most of our staff has been with Bend Brewing (BBC) for years so they are very familiar with the operation so we trust them to be able to adapt pretty quickly. Other places may be delaying so they have time to re-train staff. Secondly, we have a pretty large space so we are able to spread people out easily which helped make the opening decision simpler. Lastly, just like everything now it seems that the decision to reopen can turn political. I've read a number of editorials from restaurant owners who are framing their decision to delay reopening as taking the moral high ground. I think every business is different and should be free to make that decision in the best interest of their staff, their customers and their business as they see fit. For BBC we wouldn't have reopened as quickly as we did if we didn't feel that we could do so safely. There seems to be mounting evidence about the mental toll the shutdowns are having on people, so if we can give people a little comfort at this time then that feels like a positive decision.
We did decide to reopen our pub May 15 and as of 3 pm the report was that the restaurant was full. Our situation in Central Oregon is a little unique in that our relative isolation on this side of the Cascades coupled with the stay at home order and social distancing guidelines helped contain the outbreak in Deschutes county to the point where the county met all the guidelines for Phase 1 reopening despite our relatively large population (for this side of the mountains that is). That being said, the fear is that with the major metro areas West of the Cascades still being closed we'll see a large surge of tourists and potentially another surge in Covid-19 cases.
Since the stay at home order went into effect on March 16 we started using our sidewalk window for to go orders. We started with limited hours to see how it would go and were able to expand those hours after a few weeks as our takeout business became much better than we expected. Packy Deenihan, BBC Owner, started the takeout business with the idea it would basically be a break even proposition that would allow him to give some staff a few hours and keep us front of mind with locals. We were fortunate to have purchased a crowler machine and pallet of cans before the pandemic took hold and were able to move some of our draft beer by offering pre-filled crowlers along with our 16 oz cans. All along we were trying to find any information on a timeline for reopening so we could be as prepared as possible.
Our decision to reopen was a pretty easy one because we are still primarily a brewpub first and foremost. The manner in which we reopened was a little bit tougher since we only really had about 24 hours heads up letting us know we would be allowed to reopen. We knew that there would be restrictions on capacity and distancing so we had already made the decision to space out our picnic tables in our grass and turn our lawn into a full service section. If you've been to our pub in the summer over the last few years we normally have an outside beer station and an outside kitchen and the lawn is an open space for people, dogs, kids to all mingle. The lawn gets very busy and crowded so we knew we couldn't operate normally outside. Inside we've removed about half the tables and are only seating every other booth. We moved our host stand outside under a tent to try and direct traffic and we've mandated that anyone being served has to be attached to a table.
Our staff, in accordance with the requirements laid out in the phase 1 reopening, are required to wear a mask at all times (we've been requiring all staff to wear a mask during takeout service as well). All tables will have single-use menus and there are no self-serve water, silverware, or condiment stations. Each section has a dedicated server who will be the only one working with a table. We are limiting groups to 10 or less. We are limiting our bathrooms to one person at a time. We are also encouraging patrons to wear a face mask when not seated at a table, though not requiring it. There are signs everywhere explaining the "new rules" and guidelines but we realize we are asking our customers to bear with us and do their part. We know some people will be pissed off about the changes but our #1 priority is everyone's safety and our managers have been given the power to close things down if it starts to get out of control. Tables will be wiped down with a sanitizing solution after every party. Again, our goal is to adhere to the guidelines and best practices as closely as possible with customer and employee safety the most important thing and we're encouraging the staff to over communicate all the new policies so we minimize the surprise factor.
That all being said, we don't really know how it's all going to work and are going to be actively learning on the fly how to execute in the best way possible and adjusting as we go. We expect to be busy and are prepared to turn customers away if we can't accommodate them safely (though obviously that's a worst case scenario). Sales won't be what they once were but we're hoping we can still keep the takeout business going at the same time and our to go beer and package beer sales through distribution have picked up considerably.
Barley Brown’s, Baker County
Confirmed Cases: 1. Deaths: 0.
We don’t have plans to open our pub any time soon. We might quietly open our brewery taproom next week, after we have a chance to see what local reaction to the phase 1 openings are. Our pub typically seats 125 people inside, and with the new restrictions, we could get 40 at best: not worth it. We’re hoping that Baker County can make the move to Phase 2 in 21 days, which hopefully will relax some of these restrictions and allow use of more tables.
As far as our brewery goes, we stopped brewing for 6 weeks. We canned up all of our beer, and resumed brewing April 26, but on a light schedule. It looks like all of our distributors sold through almost all of our kegs, so we should have a fresh start when draft lines begin to flow again. I’m still on the day-to-day beer-to-beer re-imagining of the business plan. I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want my employees to get sick. I don’t want to read the obituaries of our older generation. Barley Brown's 22nd anniversary is June 1st, and my younger daughter turns 21 the next day. These will both be some quiet celebrations.
Double Mountain, Hood River County
Confirmed Cases: 14. Deaths: 0
Matt Swihart, owner/founder: Like most businesses, we are very torn right now. We strongly supported the governor's actions closing down in person dining in March, and like a few businesses, actually shut-down a week prior. The writing was on the wall in Washington and California so I started to feel uneasy with staying open, we cancelled our anniversary party in early March that had been scheduled for the 14th. I still feel much as I did then.
As a business owner, I have to remodel my expectations for the future and create a new business. Home delivery of beer and take-out pizza have kept us afloat, but a full return to taverns being open will remain out of reach for months perhaps years. I believe Double Mountain is probably poised better than most. We have always been a lean operation, we own most of our real estate, didn't set up a business model that involved excessive growth, and strive to be a community leader. That local approach should serve us well and thank god I don't owe 20 million dollars for a brewery that makes tens of thousands of barrels I can't sell.
For the immediate term, I welcome Kate Brown's cautious opening of counties and support her guidelines. We have chosen not to open in-person dining for this weekend as we are afraid of the onslaught of people from out of town. We want to create a dine-in experience slowly, safely, one that is warm, welcoming, enjoyable and protects our customers and staff. I expect we will try a soft opening sometime in the coming week(s) to get our feet wet, perfect our limited dining plan and outside seating and then start to accept customers that want to get a pizza and beer at our pub. We will continue to do take-out and separate customers that are getting food to go and coming in for pint. We are writing the script for a safe enjoyable dining experience and choreographing how we serve those customers like a ballet—not like a mosh pit. As other restaurants and bars are opening up, we are reaching out to those businesses to gauge the quality of their beer and replacing it with fresher kegs in some cases. This is really an unprecedented time.
I've always been a student of brewery failures. 150 years ago, it was always fires in the brewhouse that spelled disaster, then prohibition, then consolidation and the demise of regional brands. When the big money came into the craft beer world in the 1990s, products were dumbed down, quality suffered, and over-capacity and overexpansion lead to a market correction. We were starting to see that once again prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the nail will be in the coffin for many businesses that won't come out to see the light of day.
Beer will always be with us, so will taverns. Humans crave other humans to socialize, celebrate, and gossip with. I miss my friends at the bar dearly and look forward to seeing again- ever so slowly and safely. I'm an atheist, but I do like the word Godspeed. Cheers to beer, cheers to love, cheers for one another. Godspeed.
COVER PHOTO: Bend Brewing Co.