Eating places Are Reopening. Working Them Is Nonetheless a Battle.

Some restaurant operators stated the brand new uncertainties signify one other daunting part of the pandemic, and one they will’t foresee ending quickly. These whose companies survived the previous 12 months stated they’re struggling to foretell what number of patrons will come again, and how briskly. In addition they don’t have any template for a way a lot meals to purchase, workers to retain and which pandemic-related adjustments to maintain.

Many shoppers stay hesitant. Fifty-three % of Individuals are snug with the prospect of consuming at a restaurant now, whereas the remainder stated they wanted extra time, in accordance with shopper polling agency CivicScience. About 37% of customers deliberate to dine in a restaurant within the following week, roughly equal to ranges measured through the fall, the late-February survey discovered.

Chicago-based restaurant EL Concepts reopened for indoor eating on Valentine’s Day weekend, and the sturdy enterprise stunned co-owner Phillip Foss. Quickly after, gross sales slumped once more. For Michelin-starred EL, which now additionally has a facet enterprise of barbecue to go, the unpredictability complicates menu planning, meals ordering and staffing.

“I really feel like I’m a yo-yo,” stated Mr. Foss, whose private financial savings are tied to the restaurant. “I don’t suppose I’m going to really feel like my toes are on stable floor for a 12 months.”

For the impartial operators who run nearly all of U.S. eating places, navigating a reopening is commonly a nerve-racking course of, house owners stated. Smaller chains and stand-alone eateries sometimes have a smaller monetary cushion in contrast with massive chains, operators stated. Small operators are likely to have much less leverage of their provide contracts and might’t unfold their monetary burdens throughout a number of places.

“It’s out the window, the thought of projecting your gross sales,” stated Lindsay Rae Burleson, co-owner of the Two Headed Canine, a bar and restaurant in Houston.

To outlive limits on indoor eating, some house owners sunk hundreds of {dollars} into to-go operations, out of doors patios and different technique of promoting. Homeowners are debating what to maintain as they attempt to perceive prospects’ mind-sets.

The Restaurant Group, proprietor of New York Metropolis, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina eateries, is juggling a spectrum of companies, together with restricted indoor eating, patio service and to-go gross sales throughout 10 of 11 eating places nonetheless working. Proprietor Jeremy Wladis can be working two dozen online-only manufacturers began out of the corporate’s kitchens to attempt to keep afloat through the pandemic.

“It’s chaos,” stated Mr. Wladis, who stated he has tried to maintain his workers employed even when hours have been unpredictable. “Each time you suppose you recognize one thing, it adjustments.”

Restaurateurs like Messrs. Wladis and Foss stated they understand they’re lucky to nonetheless have companies to run. U.S. eating places and bars have misplaced billions of {dollars} in gross sales through the pandemic due to the dine-in restrictions, as customers spent extra at supermarkets and ate at dwelling. Greater than 110,000 eating places and bars closed for good or briefly final 12 months, in accordance with the Nationwide Restaurant Affiliation.

Orders at sit-down chains had been 37% decrease within the week ended Feb. 21 in contrast with the corresponding week final 12 months, in accordance with industry-research agency NPD Group.

As of this week, 22 states are letting eating places function at full capability, in accordance with the Restaurant Affiliation. San Francisco restored restricted indoor eating final week for the primary time since November. Texas, the state with the second-most eating places and bars within the nation after California, is eradicating all occupancy restrictions and permitting prospects to forgo masks necessities.

Some epidemiologists have stated restaurant capability limits are being lifted too quick, too quickly. Federal officers even have cautioned in opposition to eradicating coronavirus-related restrictions too shortly, as virus variants flow into and indicators recommend that progress has leveled off. Final week, researchers with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reported that counties that allowed on-site restaurant eating had an increase in Covid-19 circumstances and deaths within the weeks afterward. Limiting in-person eating and mandating masks can assist scale back virus transmission and deaths, researchers stated.

Whereas indoor-dining restrictions benefited some fast-food chains’ to-go enterprise, many casual-dining restaurant corporations skilled losses, regardless of beefing up their very own takeout choices.

Some restaurant operators imagine they will function safely and stated that many shoppers have returned once they opened their doorways.

John Peyton, chief government of Dine Manufacturers World Inc., DIN 3.72% stated the Applebee’s guardian is assured in its capability to maintain prospects and staff protected, and that the return of indoor eating is essential. When a state has elevated indoor-dining capability, the advance to the corporate’s gross sales is sort of fast, he stated.

“We’ve been planning for the return to our eating places for months,” Mr. Peyton stated.

Reopenings haven’t at all times translated into an entire rebound for eating places.

In Florida, which allowed eating places to return to full occupancy in September, a number of chain house owners stated gross sales have bounced again. However statewide restaurant reservations stay roughly 20% decrease than the earlier 12 months, in accordance with on-line reserving web site OpenTable, and restaurant operators stated vacationer facilities reminiscent of Orlando are sluggish.

Ms. Burleson, the Houston bar proprietor, is for now holding capability at 50% to assist prospects and staff really feel protected. She wasn’t in a position to exceed that stage and wasn’t sometimes bumping up in opposition to it, as demand stays low and irregular, she stated. Ms. Burleson has taken on odd jobs to attempt to get by till the summer time, when she hopes gross sales will enhance and keep that means. Her total financial savings have gone into holding her institution alive, she stated.

“If this goes away, all I’ve is a canine,” Ms. Burleson stated.

Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com