Miami-Dade diners return to restaurants as dining rooms reopen amid COVID-19

Wine Wednesdays over Zoom just weren’t the same.

After 62 days in separate quarantine, friends Natalie Abad, Valeria Mantialla and Monique Motta raised a frosty glass of golden beer in person on the front porch of Flanigan’s Seafood Bar and Grill in Kendall as traffic zoomed by. They toasted over plates of fried chicken wings and baby back ribs on the first day Miami-Dade county restaurant dining rooms were allowed to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

Things were different since the last time the college friends saw one another.

They wore masks until they were seated. Tables on either side of them were kept empty to ensure at least six feet of separation as restaurants are limited to no more than half capacity. When the masked waitress approached, she handed them disposable menus.

And when their group left, a masked crew of busboys wiped down the table and chairs.

“I think I can get used to the new normal,” Mantilla said.

All over the county, customers returned to restaurants for the first time since March 16, when governments ordered dining rooms closed and limited businesses to takeout and delivery to stem the virus’ spread. Several local governments, including the cities of Miami, Hialeah, Miami Gardens and Miami Beach, have said they will wait until May 27 to allow restaurant dining rooms to reopen.

And both public health experts and infectious disease specialists urge those in at-risk categories or with at-risk family — those over 65 or with compromised immune systems — to remain home during South Florida’s first phase of reopening.

But in unincorporated pockets of the county, like Kendall, where only Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s order issued last week stands, diners ventured out.

They found restaurants like Kendall’s Puerto Madero Argentine restaurant eager for their sit-down business — but also tasked with acting as public health emissaries.

Sebastian Silvera, owner of this 14-year-old neighborhood favorite, gently reminded guests to wear their masks when they weren’t sitting at their table. He apologized when he had to bring out single-serving packets of oil and vinegar. Waiters stood guard at restrooms to ensure customers went in only one at a time. And to his 15-20 lunchtime diners (about 10 percent of his usual lunch crowd), he explained why his staff was wiping down tables, chairs and door handles every 30 minutes.

And as the aroma of parrillada and fresh-baked empanadas mixed with scent of spray sanitizer, two-inch masking tape outlined the chocolate tiles floors around tables where diners could sit.

“It will take an adjustment for people to understand what it entails for us to reopen,” Silvera said.

If the pandemic has taught him anything, it’s that his customers want his neighborhood restaurant to succeed — even as it is tucked into the corner of a strip mall under construction, where the lighted sign out front has faded from red to pink.

Two days after he closed, a longtime customer bought $1,000 worth of gift cards and said he would wait to use them until the business was back to normal, essentially handing Silvera a short-term no-interest loan. Takeout and delivery remained brisk. And when he reopened Monday, his outside dining area was filled to its new capacity with regulars.

“Those things stay with you,” he said, emotional. “I learned we have super-loyal customers and that’s what saved us these last two months.”

He had other help. Puerto Madero qualified for a forgivable federally backed payment-protection loan so he could keep all his 14 employees on staff.

“Nobody missed a check,” he said.

Downtown Dadeland took advantage of the guidelines allowing restaurants to reach their full occupancy by closing the streets down the center of their planned community and letting restaurants set up tables outdoors. Plus health experts have said dining out doors is safer than indoors, where the virus can recirculate and spread with air conditioning.

That means when restaurants like Abi Maria, Brick and Ghee Indian Kitchen, whose owner was named one of Food & Wine’s best new chefs last week, reopens Tuesday they’ll have more options.

Pubbelly Sushi didn’t wait that long to innovate and open. They built barriers with translucent plastic sheeting to separate tables that have been spaced six feet apart. And diners such as Mariangelly Abreu, Herbert Eckardt and Jennifer Feliz were at the entrance when the doors opened.

“It was less weird than I expected, but it was definitely different,” said Abreu, who dined with her two colleagues at a nearby staffing company, who also returned to work in the office for the first time.

The three ordered plates of sushi and glasses of beer, tucked into what Eckardt called a cubicle, but a private one.

“You could tell they really thought about things before they reopened to the public,” he said.

Behind them, Pubbelly’s open kitchen showed a staff of six — reduced from between 8-10 for social distance reasons — working at separate stations that two tables of diners could see filling mostly to-go orders.

“After being locked indoors for so long,” said Feliz, “it was nice to have a dining experience again.”

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