By Kavitha George (Alaska Public Media)
• Dec 28, 2020
Jack Sprat owner and operator Frans Weits. (Erin McKinstry/Alaska Public Media)
Halfway through the city’s third pandemic shutdown, Anchorage’s hospitality industry is struggling and increasingly frustrated.
“Being shut down the entire month of December is a big blow to our restaurant,” said Frans Weits, co-owner of Girdwood eatery Jack Sprat. “We depend on December to make up for some slow fall months.”
Weits said swinging between shutdowns and partial-capacity reopenings over the last eight months have made it challenging to keep the restaurant staffed. During the first shutdown in March, he said he had to cut staff by two-thirds and business dropped by 75 percent. Rehiring is slow and difficult, and by the time they get close to fully staffed, it’s time for another shutdown.
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We re making this important information available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider supporting independent journalism in Alaska, at just $1.99 for the first month of your subscription. All COVID-19 test sites in Anchorage will be closed Christmas Day, but there are several locations where people in the municipality can get a free test the rest of the holiday weekend. On Saturday, the city will have a pop-up testing site set up at 2900 Denali St. by the former Midtown Denny’s, near REI. Testing is also available Saturday and Monday at the Loussac Library, Changepoint Church, Muldoon Community Assembly, 4115 Lake Otis Parkway and in Eagle River at 11801 Business Blvd. On Sunday, just the Lake Otis Parkway location will be open for testing.
Print article For the third time since March, Anchorage has closed bars and restaurants for indoor service. And for the third time, daily COVID-19 case numbers have dropped. “The big question is what’s driving that, and have these emergency orders, in particular in Anchorage, have they made a difference?” said Dr. Tom Hennessy, University of Alaska Anchorage epidemiologist. Case numbers in Anchorage soared in November, leading to Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson’s consideration of business closures that she ultimately enacted for the month of December. But the decision elicited an outcry from vocal detractors, especially in the hospitality industry, who said the move was too heavy-handed.
Thousands of extra doses of Pfizer vaccine included in first shipment are a ‘godsend,’ Alaska providers say Published December 18, 2020
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We re making this important information available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider supporting independent journalism in Alaska, at just $1.99 for the first month of your subscription. As providers around the country this week began administering the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, many were surprised to find that each vial of vaccine contained enough for six or even seven doses of the vaccine, rather than the anticipated five.
Print article A group of restaurateurs this month met with Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson and her administration to pitch them on new safety measures, aimed at allowing participating restaurants to open during the city’s monthlong closure of bars and restaurants due to the pandemic. Both sides say the Dec. 8 meeting
was productive,
but Quinn-Davidson ultimately turned down the offer. The plan was based around more strict sanitizing practices, like having customers sanitize their hands upon entering and sanitizing bathrooms every 30 minutes. “They heard us, they listened, but the bottom line for us is we want to do this as soon as possible,” said Chris Anderson, president of Glacier Brewhouse and ORSO in downtown Anchorage.