Rochester businesses react to latest directives from Gov. Walz

As the surge of Covid-19 cases in Minnesota starts to wane, Gov. Tim Walz announced updated guidelines for Minnesota’s restaurants, bars, fitness centers and other settings Wednesday afternoon, slightly scaling back most restrictions while keeping indoor dining fully shut down through the end of 2020.

The governor’s order will allow gyms and other fitness centers to open at 25 percent capacity (with a 100-person hard cap), after being shut down for nearly a month through Walz’s last order. 

Across Rochester, business owners affected by the changes said they were grateful for the opportunity to get going again, but wished they could welcome more people at a time.

Jeremy Schaar, co-owner of Roca Climbing and Fitness in northwest Rochester, said his business was requiring climbers to wear masks and social distance even before the shutdown, meaning that the climbing experience won’t be much different come Saturday. 

“We know cases are still high, but we feel like we were doing a really good job in doing our part to keep people safe,” said Schaar. “It’s nice to have that recognition from the state. After the close, we heard from some people that we were really the only place they were going to besides the grocery store, so it’s great to give the community that resource back again.”

Online registration for climbing times were moving fast Wednesday afternoon after the news broke — a sight for sore eyes, Schaar says, especially without a federal stimulus to support the business through a second shutdown.

“Being shut down for four weeks, obviously, it’s tough financially,” said Schaar. “Being able to open these doors again will be very nice, from a revenue standpoint, and we have such a great community that’s excited to be here.”

Over at the Rochester Athletic Club, general manager Brent Frueh said his team spent most of Wednesday figuring out how to set up the space to accommodate for proper social distancing — 12 feet between people at all times, according to the governor. 

Twenty-five percent capacity for the RAC, however, is much larger than the hard 100-person cap set by Gov. Walz — so in the interim, the vast fitness center may still feel like a ghost town of sorts.

“There’s a lot of changes we need to work on with the new restrictions,” said Frueh. “Although we’re happy to open, a hundred people for a 260,000 square-foot building is a little difficult — but it’s better than nothing.”

Taking it in stride

Restaurants and bars, however, did not get the green light from the governor to return. Gov. Walz said those establishments remain closed to indoor diners through the holidays, and indoor seating won’t return in any capacity until at least January 11. Outdoor seating, though, will be allowed to open at 50 percent capacity (100-person max), 

Hundreds of restaurants and gyms across the state have said they will re-open in defiance of the governor’s orders — but Jennifer Becker’s Bleu Duck Kitchen is taking the exact opposite approach. She says her restaurant — which has a normal capacity of 62 people — will remain closed to in-person dining until all capacity restrictions are lifted, opting to focus on take-out meals and retail shopping in the near future.

The take-home meal options have been a boon to Bleu Duck’s bottom line, says Becker, allowing her team to focus on socially-distant revenue streams through the winter and early spring.

“Whenever [the governor] speaks in the future, we’ll take it in stride and keep doing what we know best — just pumping new things out,” said Becker. “We like to come up with new ideas and be creative, and I think that’s where we can set ourselves apart from other places.” 

Once restrictions are lifted, though, it’ll be a new day inside Bleu Duck — after completely flipping their business model to get through Covid-19 and the business restrictions that have followed it.

“I told Erik [Kleven, fellow owner of Bleu Duck] the other day — it’s going to be so nice once we get back to normal,” said Becker. “It’s going to feel like we’re doing nothing, just to set up the dining room and get to it. Right now, I’m bottling hundreds of cocktail mixes, getting our holiday market set up — it’s fun, but it’s crazy.”

‘Everything is moving so fast’

Minnesota’s breweries fall under the same restaurant regulations, meaning they will also be under an outdoor-only seating model through the rest of the year. Steve Finnie, co-owner of Little Thistle Brewing, says he had to furlough his part-time workers when news of the four-week pause came down from the governor in November. 

Now, with outdoor seating as an option, Finnie says he wants to open his outdoor beer garden at some point in January — but for the rest of 2020, the brewery will remain in a to-go model.

“Everything is moving so fast,” said Finnie. “We want to be open, and our goal is to utilize our outdoor space, but right now, we just don’t have the staffing. All our part-time staff, we told them to be on pause, and to expect them to all come back a few days before Christmas and cover lots of shifts? That would be really challenging.”

Until then, Little Thistle will rely on its beer to-go model to stay afloat. While Finnie says the canning process has been a success considering the circumstances, the day-to-day tasks of running a canning operation are much different than those of running an open taproom. 

Outdoor seating will take some of the pressure off the to-go model, but until all restrictions are lifted, Rochester’s breweries will have to primarily rely on a business model that they didn’t initially plan for.

“It’s so much more labor intensive,” said Finnie. “You have to get cans, labels, artwork — all these things just to put your beer into a vessel. It’s so much easier to pour it into a pint glass and re-use it, but that’s not an option right now. This is more draining on the workforce, it costs a little more, but that’s what we have to do now in order to have sales.”

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.

Cover photo: file / licensed via Getty