Having disposable or onlinemen ewes, no preset tables with napkins folded, no shared condiments like salt and pepper shakers, strong he encouraging the use of face coverings, employees within six feet of customers must wear a mask, asking customers to wait in their car until their table is ready, and bar areas must remain closed. Theres 60 items on the checklist, this is just part of it, and the county must first approve this to move into this part of stage two before restaurants can open in this capacity. We have some of the most popular Restaurant Owners, george ten, china live in San Francisco. Owner of saj thanks for being. Isc its faastic. Your food is fantastic, hospitality great, and i know youve been conscientious in terms of being able to operate safely at this time. I want to know, based on the guidelines we saw today, when do you each think you can start dinein again . George, start with you. Well, it really depends o what the San Francisco guidance will be. I expect the mayor can give us timing soon. Because the last time i think the state issued, the mayor came out with guidance. About shutting down, shelter in place until may 30th. So were planning for an early june opening, hopefully, partial opening, pending these guidelines and what else in terms of capacity, which wasnt talked about. Is it 50 . Is it limited to 100 seats . Theres a lot of the questions remaining. Enzo, when do you think you can make those adjustments and reopen for dinein . Today we get told guidance, and we get ready, well be training all our employees. Well try to make the restaurant adjustments to put our customers to feel safe. And most important also for all our employees to come and work in a safe environment. Saed, when do you think you could reopen for dinein . Show us some of the changes and adjustments youve already implemented. Sure. So we have 13 different locations all over california. So the opening for dining is going to vary based on the jurisdiction that were in and what theyre going to allow people to go back. For example, in l. A. , they just extended their shelter in place to july 1st. Were expecting to open here in june. We currently have six locations actually open for takeout and delivery. Working with guidance from the cities and counties were in. Obviously were going to abide by reduced capacity. We already abide by a lot of the requirements for spatial distancing, masks, all of that. Ill show you a little bit, i dont know how were going to do this. Ill show you. This is one of our locations in san mateo. Im going to stop you only because the audio is a little funky. Im going to hope that your audio improves. But george, i want to ask you, do you find any part of these guidelines challenging . For example, screening guests for symptoms . Do you feel comfortable doing that . We dont have a choice. I think safety is going to be the number one concern for anybody venturing out to dine. Ive talked to tons of people, tons of friends, and just kind of doing surveys. Everybody says, im dying to go out but i want to make sure that its a safe place and that i feel like im not going to catch anything going to a restaurant. And so thats our main concern. You know, these guidelines are tough. I think the toughest one we are going to do temperature checks. I got my first thermometer through amazon today. We have plexiglass screens. Were going to do contact tracing. Its an inconvenience for a lot of people who are afraid of privacy concerns, but it is something that people will feel safe, and theyll be willing to come back and try our restaurants again. Enzo, i know youre really a try brant host, you always greet your customers with, hey, bella, a big hug. Its been hard for you not to do that. Talk about how youre going to change the interaction between your staff and customers. Well, bella, i think you can this is a time where we need everybodys help. Starting from us, from the customers, from the employees. Its a winwin situation. Everybody tries to do a little more to try to make things work. Its new. Its new for us, its new for them. And, you know, right now this will be better than nothing. It will be an experience to deal with our wonderful customers, and i hope there will be a lot of cooperation from everyone. And we can go through these, you know its a little tough, but with a little help from everyone, we can make things work. And thats a winwin situation, you know . For sure we need we hope to get everybodys cooperation. People try to be a little bit smiling. We got to get through this. Everybody, a little effort. Saed, im going to hope your audio is a little better now. I am wondering if you have already removed anything that might be common touch points like salt and pepper shakers, condiment bars . I know those were things the governor mentioned today. Yes, we did. We removed we had the service bar where we have all spices and condiments, we actually packed that in individual containers and give to it the customers per their order. Same with napkins, forks, knives. We actually dont allow customers to handle any of the product before them. We did start taking the temperature for our employees, and thats something we might consider doing for the customers coming in. Obviously we have to abide by the guidelines as stated. Its a new normal. Its just a new way of doing things. We love our guests and oure rea digital expercan reach out to pd offer better guidance. And i personally believe that thats going to be a new day. In addition to china live, which as vibrant place in chinatown, you have the upstairs, eight tables, a fine dining establishment. The rule of not being able to have the table settings with the napkins, cutlery, glassware, providing only when asked, thats challenging for a place like that, eight tables. Yeah. Fine dining is going to be hit hardest because theres a Service Component to fine dining. Its tableside conversation, touches, steps. Luckily for us at eight tables, you know, it was designed to be like private chateau cuisine, so fairly wide apart, more than six feet apart already. The difficulty is if you cant approach a table within six feet if youre wearing a mask, youre six feet away, its hard to drop food. If you have a plexiglbarrier, t feel right for a fine dining experience. And i certainly dont want to go to a restaurant where the next table has a big x on it or a table grid like a crime scene. So i think its going to be a challenge for sure. Theres going to be a lot to learn, trial and error. Were going to follow these guidelines strictly. Its going to be tough. Lets take it to our livestream platforms. Were getting a lot of viewer questions about how the restaurant experience is going to work. Well answer some were back with popular Restaurant Owners george chen, owner and founder of china live in San Francisco, saed ayub, sajj mediterranean in san mateo, and enzo, owner of licando in danville and lafayette. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. All right, so this time i think ill start with you, enzo, which is, the governor did not say the percentage that you need to operate at in terms of your capacity. Hes kind of leaving it up to the restaurants, using the guidelines. Do you think for you thats going to be 30 , 50 , or what . What does it need to be for you to actually i dont want to say make a profit, but break even . More like the 25 , 30 . It will require the social distance. Maybe i can try to geart betwee. And then again, you know, its tough. Its very challenging. Because our manager, our chef, they used to make a very good salary, make good money. Now were working only 25 of capacity . You know, everybody got to get adjusted, everybody got to get cut. Also we hope we can get help from the landlord. Because you know, 25 of capacity, my landlord has to understand that i cannot pay the full rent. So i dont think it is a good time to make money, more a time to survive and to go through this. Hope well be over all this. I wonder if many of your restaurants or employees, have they left the industry, left the bay area . Not so many. Not so many yet. How about you, saed . Yeah, luckily we have a great staff. Everybody that stopped working really wants to come back. As we open up, we expect to hire everybody again. Its a challenge in the bay area. Some people dont have that much, are on unemployment. I think were lucky. Thats lucky if you can retain most of your staff. George, ive got to ask you, nobody wants to raise prices during a time like this when economically everyones suffering and youre already having to work hard to bring people back. But given the fact that if youre operating at 25 , 30 capacity, that doesnt mean your costs are much lower in terms of staffing, especially if you need bathroom attendants to make sure theres social distancing and wiping down of handles afterwards. Are you going to have to rate prices to make ends meet . Well, you know, we slowly have crept uh our prices in the three years plus that weve been open, because were in chinatown, and people have a perception chinese food should be cheap, big portion. We changed that perception with highquality ingredients and cooking. We may have to rate a little bit because of just extra costs of doing business. But that doesnt really address the fact that if youre doing we have to stay doing at best 40 of our previous sales levels, and were one of the highestgrossing restaurants in the entire bay area. At that level, with our overhead, we cant really survive. So we actually have to pivot beyond what we sell inside our walls. Even with delivery, business increasing sevenfold, its still not going to be able to sustain what were what the model was originally. So we have to get into more distribution, more retail, ecommerce of our products, because we have a market as well. I got to say, i get that, george. I understand why you have to pivot. And your chili oil, black bean sauce, are excellent. So im going to have to place an order. George chen, saed ayub, and enzo rozano, three great restaurateurs, Restaurant Owners in the bay area, thank you so much, appreciate your time. When we come back, phil matier and Governor Newsoms former c all right, earlier we heard from local Restaurant Owners about what these our dynamic duo to talk about other implications from Governor Newsoms briefing. Joining us, abc 7 news contributor and San Francisco chronicle insider phil matier, and Governor Newsoms former Communications Director and current ceo of the cress shop, nathan ballard. Hey, guys. Before we jump in lets go over some of the guidelines Governor Newsom issued. He announced the phased opening of more Industries Including offices that cannot telework, malls, strip malls. But for pickup only and outdoor museums, like a botanical garden. Pet grooming is listed under what can operate with modifications. Wed heard from a lot of you on that particular field. The dog grooming. So there it is. The governor said butte county and El Dorado County have been approved to move deeper into phase two, other counties could get approval today, and hes talking to 27 counties about this. Interesting, the word approval. I thought it didnt have to be a state stamp of approval for those counties to say, we are ready to move into the deeper part of phase two. Well, you know, you have your aspirations, then you have whats going on on the ground. The governor is doing what he can, which is basically lay out broad strokes. Not necessarily pinning him or the state down. Last week they were sending out inspectors and warning people in nail salons, hair salons, and bars, you could lose your license for opening up early. This time what were seeing is a loosening of the reins somewhat, not much. Im not sure how its going to play out economically. Im not sure the restaurants involved in this are going to be able to stay open with the restrictions that are applied. Im not sure the stores are going to how well theyre going to do with curbside service. But theres also this balanceee to a countallow. Focus right now. The entire nation is watching whats going on in fremont between tesla, the state, and the Alameda Health director over reopening that plant. Yeah, thats an interesting battle, nate, i hope you can get into. When you listen to Governor Newsom, sounds like hes almost ready to play the role of mediator between Alameda County and tesla. Yeah, i think, first of all, theres a long relationship between gavin newsom and mr. Musk. And they worked together, they actually i think launched tesla at San Francisco city hall when tesla came to california. Theyve known each other and have been friendly for a long time. Obviously elon musk has been flaming out on twitter and making a lot of noise around the shutdown. Tempers are running hot. Theres got to be some sort of compromise between Alameda County and tesla that is going to work for everybody. Weve got to be able to resume production in a way thats safe. And i think, frankly, tesla is known for its innovation, and they should be able to figure out a way to keep their employees safe and get their production line moving without further spread of the disease. I think that Governor Newsom understands that. And i think we will see a workable solution to this conflict between the county and tesla pretty soon. Yeah, it does sound like all the stakeholders have an interest in getting that resolved soon. I want to talk about the restaurants. You heard from the three restaurant own hoarse were with us. They understand one of the guidelines is now screen guests for symptoms. But they expressed a little uncertainty about how they would actually do that. I mean, what if you have a customer who refuses to have their temperature taken . Do you chase them around with a thermometer . That seems highly unlikely. It is. But what we have is a situation that you will likely see repeated around and around the bay area as we move on. Its a big question. If youre opening a shop you,he mhing in get my h cut . Especially women. They want it back. They want some sort of semblance of normalcy. Say you went into a shop to get your hair cut, would you have to show that youve been tested . Would you have to show, say you get your temperature taken, every time you turn around . Were talking about possibly taking temperatures on mass transit. Everybody wearing masks. So i dont know how you do it unless you say, unless you let me take your temperature, you dont come in the restaurant. But whos going to take the temperature, if im already running on a budget . The rest of the rules for opening restaurants are you cant even share salt and pepper shakers, cant have the bar section open. Its going to be tough enough. I dont know if screeningss going to be added in. How are people supposed to eat meals with masked on . Were seeing that question a lot. Theres a political issue here. The governor understands because he was in the restaurant business. Thats the Hospitality Business. You are asking themo somthgs th being hospitable, right . Right. I think that what you need to remember about restaurants and hotels and the Hospitality Business as they open up is that its important for the customers to feel safe. So were going to reach a point where, if you walk into a restaurant in San Francisco right now and its crowded with people eating, youre going to walk right out. Because right now in San Francisco, the customers arent ready to put themselves at risk like that. However, if youre in butte county or eld dorado county and you walk into a restaurant and the tabled are spaced ten feet apart, there arent people milling in the street, youre going to feel more comfortable sitting in a wellventilated restaurant. It really is a case by case situation. Now obviously were not going to turn restaurateurs and Business Owners into health care workers, but is it reasonable to post at the door a sign that says, if youre sick, dont come in. If you have a fever, dont come in. And also to see if somebody looks physically sick, to have a word with them. These are reasonable accommodations that Business Owners can make as we slowly reopen society. I just want to this is a moment in time weve never seen before. On september 10th, 2001, it would have been unthinkable that we needed to take your shoes off before you entered an airplane and take your belt off. But the world changed then. And in the same way the world is changing now. Absolutely. Phil, do you see any element of politics in terms of the industries that have the loudest voices or the best lobbying that may have gotten a little ahead in the game . The loudest voices, because they usually have the most members. The loudest lobbying because theyre very active at it. The Construction Business is one of those. Over all of this, if theres a final point to be made, is the governor and everybody is still behind the scenes bracing for what they fear could be a second wave. So what were seeing is some loosening up here. So testing. But they want and theyre still afraid that Something Else could happen. And also, although we might not be feeling it here, its still hitting los angeles hard. And hes talking to los angeles as well as us. And thats one of the things hes surfing is one area versus the other. Were looking at ours, theyre looking at a different situation down there. But californias a nation state and weve got them all. Thats all the time we have for discussion today. A good one as always. Phil matiers column appears in the San Francisco chronicle wednesdays and sundays. And we bye, nate, until next time. Thats going to do it for now. Tonight, the stark warning from dr. Anthony fauci and the head of the cdc when it comes to reopening america too quickly. Dr. Fauci warnin trigger an outbreak you may not be able to control. He also acknowledged today in a senate hearing, the nations death toll is likely higher than the 81,000 cases being reported. The nations Top Health Officials testifying before the senate. Three of them while under some type of quarantine. Dr. Fauci telling senators, and the american people, if you think we have it completely under control, we dont. Tonight, what he said about the timeline for a possible vaccine, about when children can go back to school. And senator mitt romney telling the president s testing czar, i find our testing nothing to celebrate. Will there be enough tests for americans going back to work . Tonight, the new promi