Dining out in central New York, like elsewhere in the country, looks very different this year. The fallout from COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the industry here, putting some eateries out of business and forcing others to reinvent themselves. Conditions could improve for some restaurants in downtown Syracuse soon, now that New York state is lifting the restrictions on indoor dining in the city. But even with that change, many restaurant owners are still figuring out how to navigate in these uncharted waters, hopeful that 2021 will mark the end of this difficult period.
At Sherry's Downtown Diner in Oswego, the smell and sound of sizzling bacon fills the kitchen. Bacon is a staple of any good breakfast spot, but this diner is not quite a staple of Oswego -yet- as the restaurant just opened its doors on New Year's Day. Owner Sherry Babcock, who formerly worked as the general manager of Friendly's Restaurant in Oswego for years, said she wasn't willing to forego her lifelong dream of opening her own restaurant, even in the face of a pandemic.
"I had a second and went well, I’m going to move forward because I want to work with the people that I work with and see the people in the community that I saw everyday and we’ll press forward," Babcock said. "So, we did."
Sherry's Downtown Diner is one of the few restaurants to open in central New York in the last year. Conversely, many dozens have closed, like Laci's Tapas Bar in Syracuse. Owner Laura Serway said she was approaching retirement and COVID was the final straw.
"We are on very thin margins and work a whole lot of hours and it took things just totally out of proportion," Serway said.
Other restaurants in the region are closing only temporarily, entering a kind of hiatus status, awaiting more favorable conditions or at the very least an end to government restrictions.
"You just need a break - you just need a break from the fight because you’re trying to take care of the community like you’ve done for so long and somebody keeps getting in your way," said Cynthia Tassone Harrington, one of the owners of Dominick's Italian Restaurant in Syracuse.
Tassone Harrington made the difficult choice of closing on New Year's Day after 40 years of service, and she's uncertain of when or if they will reopen. For months, restaurants in the downtown Syracuse region languished under the state's Orange Zone rules that prohibited in-door dining in certain zip codes. Tassone Harrington says it took a toll.
"The dynamics of this are taking an area which was growing, downtown Syracuse was developing and becoming a major attraction, it was becoming a city people wanted to visit and people would want to come stop at and stay and visit the attractions," she said. "What they’ve done to it now is they've just taken downtown Syracuse and the surrounding areas and made it into, like a ghost town."
Despite the challenges, Serway said she may be out for now but she isn't done yet. She plans to return to the industry in the near future. Serway says the key to survival for those who decide to forge ahead will be adaptation.
"As the industry continues to change, we have to either change with it or we have to move on," Serway said. "We all say the same thing, we gotta keep our nose to the grindstone, watch our expenses, and helping each other, and pushing business toward each other. We are going to come out of this."
In that spirit, local restaurant owners are planning a chili cook off event later this month, the proceeds of which will go to support their fellow restaurants in the Syracuse area that are struggling.
