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Two weeks into an unprecedented statewide shelter-in-place order driven by the deadly coronavirus, Bay Area bars, bookstores, dance studios and even crab fishermen are finding new and unexpected ways to bring in some desperately needed revenue as the economy continues to tank.
And for customers that’s been a welcome respite, a way to hang onto beloved habits and reconnect with teachers and communities. For others, it’s meant a way to get a quart of margarita or craft beer right at home.
At the Peninsula Ballet Theatre in San Mateo, online classes started because one teacher wanted to stay in touch with her advanced students. The idea was so popular they expanded to more classes, which are now open to anyone online for free, according to Executive Director Christine Leslie.
“We all love to dance, it’s what we do, and our teachers love to teach,” Leslie said. “It’s what a nonprofit organization does, we just keep dancing.”
Leslie said she’s heard from parents and students grateful to have the classes back and the release of dancing with their classmates, even if they’re only together on the screen. Still, the classes haven’t been a big revenue source so the teachers are doing it as volunteers from their own homes, she said.
Likewise, dance teachers at the Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco have tried a combination of offerings, with some doing free classes on videoconferencing app Zoom and letting people donate if they want, and others maintaining their regular class fees, said Stella Adelman, managing director at the theater.
Although most instructors have been teaching their classes from their own homes — getting a peek into those has been a thrill for some students, she said — on Saturday she was helping Susana Arenas Pedroso set up a Zoom meeting for her Cuban folkloric dance class.
Arenas Pedroso doesn’t have enough room at her Berkeley home for the class, so Adelman helped her set up a laptop on a chair and Zoom into the large empty studio, with about three dozen students following along in their own homes.
“Everyone is having to super improvise and find solutions on the fly, but this is what creatives do,” Adelman said. “The artist hustle is real.”
The response has been great, with some students tearing up at seeing their dance community after weeks in isolation. Some classes have had more than 100 students — far more than would fit in the studio, Adelman said. And it’s helped bring in money for the teachers, many of whom are struggling from closures and cancellations.
The shelter-in-place order has also hurt commercial fishermen who used to sell to restaurants that are now shuttered. Even selling directly to customers is a challenge, with places such as the Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay closed to the public because the gangways and docks are too narrow to allow for social distancing, said Sabrina Brennan, a San Mateo County Harbor commissioner.
On Friday, Brennan’s friend called her because a crab fisherman she knew was coming into dock with 80 crabs and no way to sell them — a total loss few fishermen could afford.
“I just suggested home delivery and she checked in and it turns out (the fisherman) has the ability to do that,” Brennan said, adding that she’s leaving a bucket on her porch at her Moss Beach home for the seventh-generation Lummi Nation fisherman to drop off a couple of crabs she ordered.
Cooking a fresh-caught crab or fish can be a fun, rewarding — and self-isolation friendly — activity for the whole family, she said. And it’s a boost for the fishermen who need to pay for their homes, boats and delivery trucks.
“Many commercial fishermen are living paycheck to paycheck, and they don’t even get a paycheck,” she said. “They’re just making a living off the food that they catch.”
And for the bookworms out there, never fear. Though customers can no longer browse its aisles, Oakland’s Walden Pond Books is letting customers call in orders to have books shipped to their home or to pick up at the shop on Grand Avenue at a social distance.
“The best way (customers) can support us is to read and call us,” owner Paul Curatolo said. “Our store is still plenty stocked.”
For the hungry, some restaurants have expanded and adapted their menus for a world where to-go is the only option.
That includes Nido’s Backyard, which didn’t typically do many to-go orders — who wouldn’t rather eat at its colorful patio near the Oakland waterfront, with seating for more than 200? This is the time of year when owners Silvia and Cory McColllow expect business to ramp up with the warming weather. Instead, business has been down more than 70 percent since the shelter-in-place order went into effect.
Nido’s is trying to salvage whatever business it can with a reworked menu, offering specials like a “family meal” platter, complete with meat, tortillas, rice, salsas and guacamole. The McCollows say proceeds from gift card sales will go directly to the restaurant’s staff.
“We typically don’t love takeout food because it doesn’t always present as well when it gets back to guests’ homes,” Cory McCollow said. “But in this case it’s our only option.”
And Nido’s is among several bars taking advantage of relaxed laws for selling alcohol to-go. It has an entire cocktail menu — including six varieties of its popular margaritas — in quart-sized pitchers for pickup or delivery.
“It’s pretty foolproof: Pour over ice and enjoy,” McCollow said.
In San Jose, Hapa’s Brewing has been offering customers feeling cooped up a way to get their craft beer fix by pick-up, delivery, and even drive-thru for consumption at home, said co-founder Derek Tam, adding they use their Facebook page to alert customers to their daily pick-up options.
“It’s nowhere near what we do usually do when we’re open to the public, but it definitely allows us to keep the lights on, pay our staff and get beer our to our customers,” Tam said. “It’s a band-aid, but its not a business model.”
