Longboat restaurants get creative in normally slow summer season

Longboat Key restaurants are doing their best to cope with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic at a time of year business would ordinarily slow down anyway. 

“It’s never that good of business this time of year anyways,” Harry’s Continental Kitchens manager Hal Christensen said. “I don’t think the uptick in [COVID-19] cases…Maybe our dinner business is a little bit off, but as far as the corner store and the deli and breakfast and lunch, they’re all pretty consistent with what they would be any summer really.”

Lazy Lobster owner Michael Garey and Blue Dolphin Cafe manager Jeanine Stebbins echoed Christensen's sentiments.

“If the kids go back to school, that usually creates about a six-week void,” Garey said. “That's that last two weeks of August and the month of September where we're waiting for the seasonal residents to begin to return.”

“I think people are having a lot more anxiety and they’re a lot more stressed out,” Stebbins said. “Luckily, we’ve got diehard regular customers who come rain or shine, COVID or not.”

Christensen said Harry’s had a slight uptick in business in June when vacation rentals resumed and the town’s public beach parking reopened. Longboat Key’s public beach parking closed again at the end of June and has not reopened since.

During the early days of the pandemic, many Longboat Key private businesses struggled with enforcing individual mask requirements. Euphemia Haye Executive Chef Raymond Arpke said he was happy when town commissioners voted in July to require masks in areas where social distancing guidelines cannot be met.

“As far as we’re concerned, that’s the best thing that happened because now we’re not the bad guy anymore,” Arpke said.

Christensen said Harry’s had a similar experience.

“They don’t want to wear a mask,” Christensen said. “They don’t want to be told what to do. It’s just a split society right now.”

Like most restaurants, Euphemia Haye requires its employees to wear a mask at all times. Customers are allowed to take their masks off once they are seated at a table.

“One of the things that we also started doing immediately, maybe before we reopened, is taking all employees’ temperatures when they arrive and logging them every day,” Euphemia Haye co-owner D’Arcy Arpke said.

While the temperature check isn’t a completely foolproof method to detect COVID-19, D’Arcy Arpke said she or another manager also asks employees a series of questions about any potential symptoms they might have. Anyone feeling under the weather is sent home.

Even with rigorous protocols to keep staff and customers safe, the restaurants have had to get creative to offset their losses.

“We've actually even expanded our menu choices a lot,” Garey said. “I realized that if the island might want more varied fare, and we had chicken wings for a spell.

“We've added more sandwich options, more handheld items that would be more appealing in [a] takeout situation, as well as in-house. You know, our menu is even larger than it was. We want to give people as many as many reasons to order from us as possible.”

Some restaurants have turned to government assistance for help. After the pandemic forced Euphemia Haye to close for more than two months, the restaurant had a Payment Protection Program loan approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“Now we don’t have to go and get a note and go deeper in debt after losing two and a half months worth of our highest and most critical business time,” D’Arcy Arpke said.

The main thing is keeping customers and staff safe while figuring out ways to continue the food business.

“We’ve been through tough times, red tides and hurricanes,” Stebbins said. “We'll get through this.”

“[Customers] know that we’re being safe and we’re pretty strict about it,” Raymond Arpke said. “Actually some of the things that we changed, people are saying, ‘You should do this year-round. You should keep doing this stuff after this stuff is over.’”

It includes providing customers disposable placemats for menus. Customers can also take a picture of a QR code using their phones to look at the menus on their own screens.

“People are really digging it,” Raymond Arpke said. “They’re thinking it’s cool.”

Euphemia Haye is also offering its full menu throughout the different areas of its restaurant, whereas it wouldn’t in the past.

The Blue Dolphin Cafe, Euphemia Haye, Lazy Lobster and Harry’s provide carry out, too.

“All you got to do is call your order in, let them know when you’re there and pull around back and they put it in your backseat for you,” Christensen said.

Harry’s has plexiglass barriers between booths and tables are spread out to abide by social-distancing guidelines. The restaurant is also offering a $24.99 local summer special, which they do some version of every year. At the restaurant, you can select one of four dinners at the price point, while at the deli, Harry's offers a free dessert for every two dinners purchased. 

“It's palatable for people who are picking up food to bring home,” Christensen said. 

As the summer winds down, many Longboat Key restaurants close for a few weeks each year after Labor Day. Several of the island's restaurants are sticking to their usual closing schedule, despite the closure during the pandemic. Maintenance still needs to happen, Christensen said.

“We're trying to get some of the locals to come out and support the restaurant before we close and give everybody either curbside pickup or dine-in the opportunity to get some good food while we're still open,” Christensen said.

Typically, many of the island’s restaurants reopen in the fall, as things pick up heading into the winter season. While Euphemia Haye and Harry’s will close for a few weeks, the Lazy Lobster plans to remain open for dinner service.

It's unclear what restaurant owners should expect for the upcoming fall and winter seasons.

“I am expecting a season, but like I said, if you're only allowed to use half your tables because of the distancing and the space that you have, then you have to find a new way to make a profit or really cut your expenses,” Christensen said. “It's going to be a lot more difficult.”

Raymond Arpke estimated things wouldn’t be totally back to normal for about another year.

“I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be slow,” Raymond Arpke said.

Garey wasn't sure.

“I could make an argument that it (season) is going to be really good and I could make an argument that it's going to be really bad,” Garey said. “Hopefully, the reality leans more towards the good side.”

Stebbins was optimistic.

“We’re all in the same boat and hopefully our faithful snowbirds come back,” Stebbins said.

Reporter Nat Kaemmerer contributed to this story.