By Lindsay Shachnow
New Yorkers have many fears surrounding the pandemic, especially as businesses and restaurants begin to reopen. Anxieties in Westhampton Beach are not limited to seasonal residents. Restaurant workers share many of the same hesitations, and more, as the town begins to restart.
The jobs of restaurant workers have changed drastically over the past few months. Additional cleaning procedures, mandatory mask wearing, and difficult customers are only some of the issues they face on top of their own concerns about the coronavirus.
Cristina Monaco, who has been a server at Eckart’s Luncheonette in Westhampton Beach for three years, says she never thought that she would be waiting tables during a worldwide pandemic. For Monaco, working during the pandemic has been stressful, but over time she has become more comfortable at work. The extra safety precautions she has to follow have kept her busy, even when many regular customers stopped showing up. Armed with latex gloves and a mask, suiting up for the work day has become a chore, along with the stringent cleaning procedures she is now responsible for.
“I have faith that if people are sick, they won’t come in because an omelette isn’t worth getting everyone sick,” she said.
Monaco reports that overall customers have been understanding about the new safety procedures in place. Early in Eckart’s reopening there were a few incidents where patrons complained about the odor of cleaning products, but now Monaco is happy to say that many people find that “bleach is their new perfume.”
Restaurants implement CDC guidelines and employ additional safety procedures in order to put their customers at ease. The more upscale restaurants have increased flexibility to adapt to the current crisis because they have access to added resources to fund necessary health and safety upgrades.
Charles Kitz, a special ed teacher at Riverhead High School, has been supplementing his income for the past 15 years by waiting tables during school breaks. He loves his job at the Stone Creek Inn in nearby East Quogue, an elegant, high-end restaurant housed in a historic building.
Over the past several months, Kitz’s working conditions have changed drastically as safety protocols such as sanitization, mask wearing, reduced capacity, and social distancing orders have been put in place. Like most New Yorkers, Kitz is anxiously waiting for things to go back to normal, both for his part time job as a waiter and especially for his special ed students. Kitz says he knows the importance of Stone Creek’s safety precautions, praising them for their daily temperature checks and employee health surveys.
Kitz says not all customers understand the gravity of the situation. “Customers have the same needs, but it is harder to meet them,” he said. “There has been a shift in dynamics.”
Kitz is happy to have a job in the current crisis, but he is ready to get back to the classroom and is hoping school will reopen in the fall. Monaco, a student herself at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, hopes to return to school this fall to finish her masters degree. Both say the current situation is challenging and that they are anxious to return to their normal lives.