Two of San Juan Bautista’s most popular food establishments, Dona Esther’s Restaurant and the San Juan Bakery, have reopened, after COVID outbreaks among staff forced both to close earlier this month.
“We are back open and trying to make a living here,” said Tami Castañeda-Huaracha, owner of Doña Esther’s. “We closed on the 6th of January at 3 o’clock. We had quite a few employees call out sick and we are already working with a short crew. When you have four people call out and then three days after that another two call out, we don’t have enough people to cover it.”
With the staff usually running between 38 and 42 people, Doña Esther’s has been working with a skeleton crew of about 22.
“We draw mostly from people who live in San Juan,” she said. “Getting people to come from farther away is very difficult. We have been closed on Wednesdays ever since the restaurants reopened at the beginning of the pandemic—a lot of employees said they were not alright with coming back because of COVID. I also had a couple of older employees leave. They took it as a sign to retire.”
What is normally a small town’s greatest asset has been a problem during the pandemic: its status as a tourist town.
“We are not any less susceptible to what is happening than anyone else in the United States,” Castañeda-Huaracha said. “If anything, we are more susceptible because of all the people coming from other areas to visit. And that has taken a toll on the town and on Doña Esther’s.”
The financial impact of Doña Esther’s being closed for two weeks was substantial.
“I would say we lost about $60,000,” she said. “How am I going to deal with it? I am going to be watching my overhead. We are going to make sure we have enough staff to accommodate guests and hopefully we can start powering through this.
San Juan Bakery was closed Jan. 15 and reopened Jan. 21 to a flock of appreciative customers. An employee with a positive COVID self-test moved the bakery to shut down, but a follow-up test came back negative.
“We have a lot of older, vulnerable customers so we have to be very careful about any possible spread here,” said bakery owner Dianne Hampton. “I get it, because everyone has these problems, but if you get one person sick, you know what? It can get every employee if you stay open and they work together.”
This is the third recent closure for the bakery. At the beginning of December, another COVID-positive employee caused the store to shut the doors. And at the end of the month, the bakery’s industrial mixer broke, which proved both difficult and expensive to repair.
Closing the bakery had a material cost as well. Because everything is prepared without preservatives, all of the shelf stock and dough prepared for baking had to be discarded.
Then there is the cost in discouraged customers who come for their doughnuts, french bread and turnovers only to find the door locked.
“It is so hard because you don’t want people getting tired of you being closed and not knowing why,” she said. “But you have to be responsible. But I am really lucky because my employees stay with me. Even when we are closed, we can come in, clean, and get work done. But the longer you stay closed, the more difficult it becomes to stay in business.”
When Doña Esther’s reopened on Jan. 20, retired owner and founder Al Castañeda came for lunch to show support for his daughter Tami and offer his thoughts on the business.
“I feel wonderful about the place being open again,” Castañeda said. “My wife and I have been anxious to come back. But dealing with problems like this is part of the job. You don’t have to like it but you have to accept it.”
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