‘Proactive but not paranoid’ — Raleigh restaurant leaders take coronavirus precautions
On Wednesday, Raleigh restaurant so.ca became the first place known to the public to have crossed paths with North Carolina’s only coronavirus patient.
Restaurant owner Sean Degnan said he got the news Wednesday morning from Wake County health officials, one day after Gov. Roy Cooper announced the local case.
Degnan said he spent the rest of Wednesday sanitizing the restaurant, throwing away linens and cleaning surfaces in hopes of ensuring the safety — and removing any stigma — in the restaurant.
“This is the safest place in the Triangle to eat,” Degnan said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. “My bleached hands can attest to that.”
As North Carolina awaits more information on its only coronavirus case so far, leaders in the local restaurant industry are taking extra care to preserve the confidence of dining out.
Wake County’s health department is still in the process of contacting other businesses that the man with coronavirus may have visited, including restaurants and grocery stores. The office would not specify how many places it had reached out to.
Ramping up restaurant cleaning
Even ahead of Wake County’s case, Kait Goalen of Ashley Christensen’s AC Restaurants group said the company had its first meeting last week about the coronavirus. And after Tuesday’s report of the North Carolina case, the restaurants ramped up their cleaning practices.
Goalen said the restaurant group, which has several restaurants in downtown Raleigh, is using stronger disinfectant on its door handles and point-of-sale screens and wiping down surfaces more times per service. She said they’re sanitizing the trays used to drop off checks at the end of meals and bought extra pens in an effort to make them single use in the course of a service.
“A lot of what (the Department of Health) advised is stuff we already do all the time at restaurants,” Goalen said Thursday in a phone interview. “We’re trying to be prepared, not paranoid.”
So far, Goalen said, weeks of coronavirus coverage and the past couple of days since the Wake County case had not thinned out business.
“At this point, our biggest concern is we don’t want people to turn away or choose not to support the restaurant community based on paranoia,” Goalen said. “The health and safety of our team and guests is our primary concern. ... We’re relying on the community to navigate this with us. We want people to stay home if you’re sick. But if you’re not, we want you coming in to join us.”
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Side by side on Moore Square, Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana are two of Raleigh’s busiest restaurants. Co-owner Vansana Nolintha said he, Christensen and Goalen had met before Tuesday’s announcement and had been in contact with state officials about the virus.
“Leading up to the first case (we met) simply because of what we do, we engage with so many different people from all walks of life,” Nolintha said. “We wanted to think through what basic steps we could take on our end to be proactive, but not paranoid.”
Nolintha said they’ve shared their plans with others in the restaurant community, advising extra and more frequent cleanings most of all.
“All public spaces are at a higher risk than private spaces,” Nolintha said. “What’s great about restaurants, that’s different than concerts, for example, is it’s actually really orderly. You have your patterns.”
Customers urged to keep perspective
Raleigh’s restaurant community has been a source of pride in the city for the better part of the past decade. It’s drawn praise in national publications and collected prestigious awards, including Christensen’s top James Beard award win last year for Outstanding Chef. Seeing that momentum slow because of the specter or stigma of the virus is a concern, said Niall Hanley, owner of Morgan Street Food Hall and Hibernian Pub.
He said he is urging the public to be smart.
“The local economy is based on the high street,” said the Irish-born Hanley, referencing Raleigh’s restaurant and retail industry. “People need to keep perspective. Use common sense. Be smart.”
Hanley said his restaurants are quadrupling the number of times areas are cleaned; workers are wiping down menus after every use; and tables and chairs are being cleaned with stronger sanitizer.
“We’re upping the baseline,” Hanley said.
On Wednesday night, Degnan posted on so.ca’s social media channels that the coronavirus patient had visited the restaurant Feb. 29. People commended the restaurant’s transparency and pledged future visits.
Degnan said so.ca was anticipating a health inspection soon and had already upped its vigilance. When it became the first local restaurant associated with the virus, he said they were ready.
“I guess I’m glad it was us,” Degnan said. “We were already expecting health inspection. We were already being extra vigilant. We had just had a meeting about company policy and how to deal with (coronavirus). We found out in the morning. So we had time to sanitize every square inch of the place before dinner service.”
The restaurant was open for dinner Wednesday night. On Thursday, Degnan said on Instagram that he is going the additional step of hiring a professional cleaning service.
“As an extra precaution, we will be getting the restaurant professionally cleaned and sanitized today and atomized with a hospital-grade germicidal spray before dinner service. so.ca is a perfectly safe place to eat and work tonight and in the days and weeks to come,” Degnan wrote in the post.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 6:32 PM.
