Outdoor dining taken off the menu




FINAL COURSE—Diners at Tavern Tomoko in Agoura Hills are no longer allowed to sit outdoors under the new health order. JOHN LOESING/Acorn Newspapers

FINAL COURSE—Diners at Tavern Tomoko in Agoura Hills are no longer allowed to sit outdoors under the new health order. JOHN LOESING/Acorn Newspapers

Happy Thanksgiving.

Los Angeles County restaurants are back to serving takeout and drive-thru only following an amended public health order that went into effect Nov. 25.

The daily average of new coronavirus cases now exceeds 4,000—a threshold that has prompted health officials to order a temporary halt to indoor dining, but not enough to warrant a second Safer At Home order like the one issued in March. If the numbers keep increasing, steeper controls could be put into place.

Establishments including those in Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village are now limited to delivery, takeout and drive-thru options for the next three weeks. Wineries and breweries also fall under the new order, but can continue their retail operations.

“The persistent high number of cases requires additional safety measures that limit mixing in settings where people are not wearing masks,” L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a statement.

Unlike Ventura County, which allows limited indoor dining, L.A. County restaurant interiors have been closed to patrons since the pandemic began.

Commuters driving the 101 Freeway through Agoura Hills may have noticed a new patio at Wood Ranch BBQ, which the restaurant set up several months ago to accommodate outdoor dining. The patio will be empty for the time being, but manager Brinton Walker said he expects the takeout department to be booming.

“Obviously the closure doesn’t benefit us, but we’re ready with our takeout. The food isn’t compromised. It travels well,” Walker said. “Thanksgiving is always a busy holiday for us. With the closures and everything, we’re ready to go back to how it was at the start of the pandemic (with) those restrictions.”

Walker said some of the bartenders and wait staff have switched to working the takeout department, but many others have been collecting unemployment since March.

The Agoura Hills City Council had been fast-tracking permits for restaurants and retailers to expand operations into their parking lots. But despite this week’s setback, Mayor Illece Buckley Weber remains positive.

“There’s a light at the end of this tunnel,” Buckley Weber said. “If we can just really help businesses in the next few months, I think that things are going to get better. There’s a couple vaccines on the way. I know it’s going to take time to get people vaccinated, but I feel optimistic,”

“I feel if the community supports local businesses through the holidays, they’ll make it,” the mayor said.

The current five-day average of cases in L.A. County is 4,100. If it rises above 4,500, or if there are more than 2,000 hospitalizations per day, the county’s Safer at Home order will be reinstated for at least three weeks.

The Independent Hospitality Coalition, a Southern California advocacy group for hotels, bars and restaurants, protested the latest county health order as an attempt to blame the food-service industry for the recent uptick in cases.

“Once again, despite any scientific proof that community spread of COVID-19 has increased due to socially distanced outdoor dining, the County of Los Angeles has determined to stop all outdoor dining,” the organization said a statement.

“By banning all outdoor dining during these colder winter months, people will instead host more indoor parties, which will undoubtedly lead to more infections. Furthermore, curfews and outdoor dining restrictions have only exacerbated the problem and pushed more social gatherings indoors,” the coalition said.