Fredericksburg holds first restaurant week amid coronavirus pandemic

Fredericksburg is in the midst of its annual restaurant week and it could be a step in getting back to normal following the coronavirus shutdown.

Starting today, participating restaurants are offering a menu of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drink specials that are sold at price points in the “20 of 2020” range, between $4.20 and $40.20.

Every year, about the third week of August, downtown restaurants participate in what has become the biggest week, fiscally, for these businesses. Typically, the dining rooms are filled to capacity, the barstools are elbow to elbow, and the wait staff is harried with more than the usual amount of orders.

But with the governor’s social-distancing rules in place to curtail the spread of the virus, those dining rooms won’t be nearly as packed, the barstools will be spaced out, and there’ll be more takeout and delivery orders than sit-downs. This week may bring diners back but it may not be the huge crowds typically seen at this time of the year.

“Everything is rather unpredictable at the moment, but we do hope to be able to serve almost as many people as usual through a combination of dine-in and carry out service,” stated Capital Ale House General Manager Dana Carson.

The alehouse is operating at 50% capacity seating due to social-distancing rules.

At the nearby restaurant Castiglia’s, manager Amanda Betters can attest to this, as the restaurant has tried to maintain the recommended six-feet apart when seating diners.

Also in downtown, the owner of the Alpine Chef  Jannec Hornig can also confirm this state as he’s had to create distance in his dining rooms as well.

“We’ve had to block off tables for non-seating for distancing purposes, we’re also using different color tablecloths for those designations. We’ve also been seating diners at the far ends of the dining room also for distancing purposes,” said Hornig.

Even restaurants that may not get as many diners have made those changes for distancing. The Sunken Well Tavern, located just off restaurant row, has relied on to-go orders and seating customers on its patio to remain in business, according to manager Paul Stoddard.

The same can be said about Colonial Tavern, on Lafayette Street. While the tavern hasn’t participated in restaurant week in nearly six years, owners there said they felt this was a good time to start. The tavern’s marketing director Deirdre Payne calls this participation a “return to normalcy” for the area.

All the restaurants participating have made changes in how they serve diners.

• They’ve been using more plastic for tablecloths, cutlery and glasses.
• They offer masks and hand sanitizer to customers to use when they’re not eating.
• They’ve also ramped up how much cleaning they do in between customers such as wiping down surfaces every 30 minutes and using laminated menus or allowing their sit down diners to order online from their phones.

“I’m glad that Restaurant Week wasn’t canceled, it’s a big opportunity for local businesses and to help restaurants that were hurting. It’s a step in the right direction as far as reopening goes,” says Italian Station manager Amber Melton.

Fredericksburg’s Restaurant Week runs this week from Monday, August 17 thru Sunday, August 23.