ROSEVILLE, Calif. — As wildfires continue to be fought across California, smoke remains a serious concern for residents and businesses.
Air quality is a major factor challenging restaurants that have already weathered through the coronavirus shutdowns, a limited reopening, and the recent heatwave.
In Placer County, the smoke has impacted air quality to the point that Placer County extended an air quality advisory through at least Sunday. Still, many people came to Downtown Roseville Thursday night to enjoy outdoor dining.
The city recently helped several businesses along Vernon Street pay for new outdoor patio decks. Though some of those decks seated a number of outdoor diners, others sat empty by choice of their owners.
“It’s pretty bad out there. We did try to stay open yesterday and we did have quite a few people come. But my employees, I need to think of them, the health of them,” said Andy Klein.
Klein, who owns The Monk’s Cellar in Roseville, says he stands by his decision to close outdoor dining due to the air quality. Still, he admits it’s not an easy decision for the restaurant’s bottom line. Especially because his restaurant was just beginning to see a boost after weeks of take-out service only.
“We were kind of starting to build up that patio business and it was going well,” Klein said. “Now obviously with the weather and the air quality, it’s really just kind of dropped off.”
Klein isn’t the only local restaurant to voluntarily close outdoor dining and switch to take-out only. He says his hope is that the community supports restaurants like his through take-out as businesses across the country continue to navigate through the pandemic.
“Those big corporate chains they’ve got a lot of money behind them, they can handle the storm,” Klein said. “These small local independent run businesses they’re the ones to support right now.”
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