Palm Springs restaurant owners respond to closing inside dining for the second time since start of pandemic

For at least the next three weeks, if you're planning on going out to eat be prepared to dine outside on the patio. 

News Channel 3 spoke with several restaurant owners to get their reaction to Governor Newsom calling on many indoor spaces to close.

“I feel really bad for our colleagues in the industry, especially people with smaller restaurants or with no patio,” the co-owner of 849 restaurant and lounge in Palm Springs, Willie Rhine said.

It's tough news for the California restaurant industry, now having to close in-door seating for the second time since the start of the pandemic.

“No matter what size restaurant small or big, it’s a huge impact," owner of Trio restaurant in Palm Springs, Tony Marchese said. "Millions of dollars we’ve lost over the last few months. It’s crazy,” he added.

Marchese has owned Trio for ten years. He decided to wait until July 1 to reopen hoping this would all be over by now.

“I’m sending staff home because it’s just patio only and we have limited seats and so we’re going to do the best we can,” Marchese said.

Despite not having the grand reopening he envisioned, lines of people turned out for a seat on Trio’s patio.

Patios were full at many other restaurants in Palm Springs and in Palm Desert.

“Most of this restaurant is patio so it doesn’t hurt us that bad," owner of Tropicale restaurant in Palm Springs, Tony di Lembo said.

After the bars were asked to close, Di Lembo, who has owned Tropicale for 13 years said he had a feeling something was going to happen.

“We very conservatively ordered food for the weekend," Di Lembo said. "We didn’t plan on doing the numbers we certainly would’ve done,” he added.

Governor Newsom called for indoor spaces to close in Riverside County and this will last for at least three weeks.

“It’s a really tough time to be in the restaurant business and I sure hope everyone manages to make it through somehow,” Rhine said.