Iconic 24-Hour Restaurant The Kettle Is Still a Manhattan Beach Staple eater.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eater.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Manhattan Beach City Council considers charging for outdoor dining decks
SHARE
by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach City Council spent much of the last 14 months grappling with how to handle the pandemic locally. Now, as the pandemic wanes but its impacts linger, the Council is faced with a new set of challenges.
On Tuesday night, at its first meeting conducted in-person since March of last year, the Council considered charging local restaurants $4 per square foot for public right of way “parkettes,” used for the construction of outdoor dining decks during the pandemic.
The concern that compelled the discussion wasn’t just financial, although a staff report indicated that the City is losing $734,597 annually due to the 78 parking spaces taken from public use by the dining decks a figure that includes parking fees, citations, and ongoing maintenance expenses.
Food carts and food cart pods were able to weather the storm of the pandemic or perhaps even benefit because they were built for to-go orders and people feel more comfortable dining in the open air, said mid-Willamette Valley business owners.
âThe pandemic encouraged more people to try food trucks than before,â said Chelsea Headrick, whose family owns Henryâs Food Court in Millersburg. The pod has six food carts â including one that opened directly due to the pandemic â and will soon add a seventh.
âThe ability to have outdoors seating makes a huge difference,â said Brian Hovelsrud, owner of the Barn at Hickory Station in North Albany, a pod that has 13 food carts and a huge picnic-style shelter.
The day will come when driving into the massively reconceived, rebuilt Manhattan Village from the Sepulveda Boulevard entrance, Joey Restaurant will offer a welcoming sight â a massive modernist structure, with seating inside and out, glass all around, and affluent diners bent over their Spicy Passionfruit Margaritas and Real Peach Bellinis. But not yet. For though Joey is open, the Village is still under construction. And if you enter (as I did) from the Rosecrans Avenue side, you may wonder if youâve come to the right mall.
Until the rubble of construction is cleared away, finding the oddly named Joey (my urge to put an âapostrophe sâ after âJoeyâ is a throwback to my years spent on copy desks) can be a bit of a treasure hunt. It sits off one of the (many!) new parking structures, with a fountained plaza on one side, and a massive California Pizza Kitchen nearby.
Restaurants throughout the South Bay have modified their businesses to accommodate dining while also meeting LA County Health Department mandates for controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Currently this means they can fill take-out and delivery orders. Other restaurants are closing temporarily while considering options and waiting for updates from city, state and county governments.
AID IN RESPONSE TO COVID CLOSURES
Skechers launches relief for restaurants
Manhattan Beach based Skechers Corp. has initiated a fund aimed at helping local restaurants survive in the wake of COVID-19-related closures. The company will match up to $500,000 in donations made to the fund. Distributions will help the restaurants pay rent, manage operating costs and keep people employed. To make a tax-deductible donation, go online to about.skechers.com/skechers-foundation. Or, write a check payable to the Skechers Foundation with Save Our Restaurants in the memo line. (Or, include a cover letter sp