On this coming Thursday, April 29, 2021, Barnacle Billy’s, Etc., our full service restaurant, will be open for the first time in two years. Last year, when we were just starting to witness the Covid crisis, I was uncomfortable opening Etc for fear that it was too closed in and people might get sick. Instead, we ran the kitchen at Etc, supplementing the food coming out of the kitchen at Barnacle Billy’s (Original). Original doesn’t have fried food so all the fried food was coming from Etc. I would call last season a success but not so successful that we could continue to do business that way. It was a very different operation with more takeout product going out the door than I ever expected. We had a mixed reaction from our employees as well. Some really liked it and others were hoping that we could go back to normal this year. We are partly there this season.
So, on Thursday, Etc. will open at 5:00 PM. As is tradition, Barnacle Billy’s (Original) will close at 5:00 PM, when Etc opens. This is the only time Original closes early - unless, of course, the weather closes us down.
I have mixed feelings about both restaurants being open. On the one hand, I am excited to have Etc up and running. On the other hand, we have been limited on staff. So having both restaurants open at the same time will dilute the employees overall. I’m not concerned about the safety aspect of opening at Etc. We have spent a year and a half working out how this will all be accomplished. I believe we have a good handle on it now. Essentially, we will be able to serve at half capacity. The reason being, the tables and chairs have to be far enough apart so patrons are no closer than six feet apart. We are keeping all our tables on the floor but some will not be able to be used and will act as spacers between tables. Tables that are spacers will be marked as such.
What staff we do have is excellent. We will just have to see how it goes. I’ll let you know.