These Tacoma restaurants have had positive COVID-19 cases

UPDATE 7/31/20: At least eight Tacoma-area restaurants and bars have reported positive cases of COVID-19 in the past month.

All have been open for dine-in business during Phase 2 of Washington’s Safe Start plan, which allows restaurants to operate at half-capacity with social distancing restrictions.

The first set of restaurants to share the news with the public were Duke’s Seafood, Katie Downs Waterfront Tavern, The Alleycat Patio & Lounge and U.P. Station Bar & Grill.

The latter two announced the cases on social media. Duke’s shared details after The Seattle Times reported July 8 that the Alki location had been shut down by the Seattle-King County Health Department for failure to follow COVID-19 regulations. Seven employees there reported positive cases.

According to state regulations, businesses must advise their local health department when two or more employees test positive for the disease within a 14-day period. A single case does not require such an alert.

Also in July, Dusty’s Hideaway briefly temporarily closed after staff came into contact outside the restaurant with a person known to have COVID-19.

Gig Harbor Brewing reported a case at its original taproom on July 28. The Loose Wheel Bar & Grill reported cases around July 15, followed by sister spot The Summit Pub July 29.

A common thread among most of these businesses has been a stated desire to be transparent with their customers. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department told The News Tribune’s Debbie Cockrell earlier this month that restaurants are only one sector feeling the effects of reopening.

Asked in a community phone call how the public could learn of businesses with an outbreak, director of health Dr. Anthony Chen said, “That’s information we don’t divulge.”

Referring to this article, he added, “You know, it’s a lot more than four. It’s just that four happened to post on their website or social media that had it. If businesses want to divulge it, and I believe those did for transparency — but we don’t divulge that. We work with them. We need them to know that it is confidential and we need them to allow us to work with them.”

In a recent interview with The News Tribune, Dr. Chen referenced the stigma restaurants have felt in the past after a norovirus outbreak.

“We don’t want people stigmatizing other people; we don’t want people avoiding businesses because they heard that the business had an outbreak,” he said. “Our job is to protect the public’s health — it’s not to put people at risk of being stigmatized or having rumors about their names, you know, so we want to be able to protect that and at the same time do what is needed to help these businesses control the outbreaks.”

He added that “it’s not unusual” for the department to work with 20 businesses any given day, and that employees can contract the virus outside their workplace, too.

The Loose Wheel Bar & Grill

UPDATE 7/31/20: The Loose Wheel Bar & Grill closed July 15-22 due to confirmed cases of COVID-19 among staff. The Sixth Avenue restaurant, located off Pearl Street in Tacoma’s West End, first shared the news on Facebook. Though not required to close, the post said, “We feel it is in the best interest of our employees and our customers to do so until each employee has been tested and cleared to work.”

The first affected employee last worked July 12, according to the post.

Owner Shawn DeCicco confirmed to The News Tribune that “a few” employees subsequently tested positive. After cleaning, the restaurant reopened July 23 for outdoor service in a new sand-covered patio. Staff will return only following a negative test result. Indoor dining will resume August 4, when enough staff has been cleared to work.

DeCicco also owns The Loose Wheel in Puyallup, where a single employee tested positive for the virus. All employees who had worked with this person tested negative.

The Summit Pub

UPDATE 7/31/20: In addition to the two Loose Wheel locations, Shawn DeCicco operates The Summit Pub in Puyallup. One employee tested positive for COVID-19 as of July 29, which the restaurant shared on its Facebook page.

It will remain closed likely through next week, as all staff will be tested, said DeCicco.

Gig Harbor Brewing Co.

UPDATE 7/29/20: Gig Harbor Brewing reported Tuesday night that a bartender at the original taproom at 3155 Harborview Dr. tested positive for COVID-19. The message shared on social media and in an email newsletter cautioned customers who visited the taproom between July 22 and July 26.

The employee worked alone July 22 and July 23, confirmed co-owner John Fosberg in an email Wednesday morning.

“We spent this morning sanitizing the Harbor location,” said Fosberg. The bar will remain closed until Aug. 5 to allow “adequate time to provide all of us with a clean and healthy environment with which to work and socialize safely,” the company wrote on Instagram.

Coincidentally, the Tacoma taproom, located at 3120 South Tacoma Way, had previously scheduled a cooler replacement for this week. The bar will be closed for this reason, unrelated to the single case in Gig Harbor, through this weekend. Both taprooms will reopen Aug. 5 at 2 p.m.

By then, breweries without restaurant licenses, as is the case for Gig Harbor Brewing, will be required to seat guests only outdoors. Fosberg likened the updated Safe Start restrictions to a “Phase 1+, but just for a short time.” Both taprooms have outdoor seating, though only the Gig Harbor location is completely covered.

Dusty’s Hideaway

UPDATE 7/31/20: Dusty’s Hideaway confirmed it would reopen August 1, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., after all staff tested negative.

PREVIOUS POST 7/20/20: There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Dusty’s Hideaway in McKinley, but some employees have come into contact with a positive case elsewhere, according to co-owner Dana Verellen.

The restaurant first shared the news on Instagram July 17 and closed over the weekend as a precaution.

Verellen confirmed to The News Tribune that all employees will be tested and the bar will reopen, ideally later this week, only when test results prove to be negative.

Located in a craftsman-style house, Dusty’s boasts plentiful outdoor seating, with tables in the front yard and on a back deck and gravel patio. Since reopening for dine-in service, customers order from a window on the side of the building and go inside only to reach the backyard or use the restroom.

U.P. Station Bar & Grill

U.P. Station noted in its July 8 post that it was not required to close, but added, “as a precautionary measure we have elected to voluntarily close to test all staff and deep clean the facility.”

Reached by phone Monday, the restaurant, which has been closed for less than a day, did not immediately return a request for comment.

The owners also run Hard Luck Bar & Grill in Parkland and The Hitchin’ Post in Federal Way. Though they did not report any positive cases at either of those businesses, they posted the news about the COVID-19 case in University Place on all of their Facebook pages.

Katie Downs Tavern

One front-of-house employee at Katie Downs Tavern tested positive for COVID-19 the week of July 6, according to an email from co-owner Luke Hilger.

The waterfront restaurant, which alerted the health department of the positive case, closed July 9-11 for deep-cleaning and testing of all employees, he said. No one else tested positive, and the affected employee will stay home until a test comes back negative.

Before each shift, employees complete a daily questionnaire about their health and have their temperatures checked. Sanitization procedures include cleaning high-touch surfaces and bathrooms every hour and having hand sanitizer stations throughout the restaurant, said Hilger. Masks are required for entry, and guests can add their name to the voluntary log. Tablets used for credit card payments are also sanitized after each use.

Staff will remain “diligent about all of our safety measures to protect our guests and employees,” said Hilger.

The Alleycat

UPDATE 7/20/2020: The Alleycat has required all of its 12 employees to be tested for COVID-19. Of the seven results received so far, all have been negative, according to co-owner Josh Norris.

The Sixth Avenue restaurant and bar, cleaned and sanitized during the temporary shutter, will reopen today at 5 p.m. Norris said only employees with confirmed negative results will return to work; they have also been self-isolating during the past week, he said.

PREVIOUS POST: The Alleycat on Sixth Avenue, a central commercial district known for bar-hopping but also fine coffee and dining destinations, announced Tuesday on Instagram that an employee tested positive for COVID-19. That person last worked at the bar July 4, the post said.

Josh Norris, who owns the bar with Ammar Mannaa of Sluggo Brewing, confirmed that it was one employee. He also runs Half Pint Pizza Pub next door, but staff do not overlap, he said.

“We do want to be transparent,” he told The News Tribune in a phone call. “This is real, this happened. We’re doing all we can, and it happened.”

Given it was a single person out of a staff of 12, and that people can be asymptomatic, he added, the positive case underscores the random nature of this new disease and the dodgy footing on which businesses now teeter.

“I guarantee you every night there’s probably one or two people in every bar or restaurant in this town that have COVID. How do we know or don’t know?” he asked.

Staff sanitized the restaurant after learning of the positive case, and Norris has required all employees to be tested. Those who experience symptoms will return to work only after reporting a negative result.

In the initial announcement on social media, The Alleycat said it would further reduce its capacity. Later, the bar went a step further.

“Like we said, this is an ongoing situation,” the post read. “The decision was just made moments ago to not risk any more spread of this virus. We are closing our doors until all of our staff has been tested.

“This is a very real problem and we all need to work on being part of the solution.”

One person added a comment saying they had heard stories and seen videos of “patrons on the patio not wearing masks, gathered in groups way over five people, and breaking the rules in general.”

The restaurant replied that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that when outdoors, “masks are not required and you are permitted in groups of more than five.” Indoors, the restaurant continued, the five-person and mask rules are both enforced.

The CDC does not specify group size at restaurants. State and local health jurisdictions have control over COVID-19 business regulations, and in Washington’s Phase 2 — where Pierce County has stayed since June 5 as cases spiked — party size is restricted to five people for both indoor and outdoor seating.

Experts believe the virus does not pose nearly as great a risk outdoors as it does being inside for lengthy periods of time, but they agree masks should generally be worn in public places.

Norris said that he had not been aware of the post and that signage and staff training adhere to state and local COVID-19 regulations.

The restaurant will remain closed for a few days, a cakewalk compared to the months-long shutdown that preceded Phase 2, said Norris.

He knows this run-in with the virus will put a spotlight on The Alleycat. He hopes their reaction to it serves as a lesson for other Tacoma businesses.

“The government has put this weight on us to get people back to work,” he said, adding that relief funding like the Paycheck Protection Program urged returning quickly, perhaps before communities were equipped for normal life while the virus lingers.

“Let’s be at the forefront and be leaders to show some positivity back to Tacoma and Sixth Avenue. For me, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do now. We can’t live in fear.”

Duke’s Seafood

Duke’s told The News Tribune in a statement last week that in addition to the Alki cases, one employee in Bellevue in late June and two in Tacoma around the beginning of July tested positive for COVID-19. They reported their exposure to their employer and subsequently tested positive, Duke’s said. None returned to work after that notice, according to the statement.

The Bellevue restaurant was closed from June 20-24 and the Tacoma restaurant from June 30-July 2 to allow for cleaning and for employees to get tested.

All facilities were cleaned with electrostatic spray technology, Duke’s spokesperson Cheryl Engstrom said in an email to The News Tribune, and employees were further educated on sanitation procedures and CDC protocols.

The Alki restaurant reopened July 14 after having been closed for seven days, during which a “comprehensive COVID-19 safety plan” was shared with the health department. It includes employee health screening, distancing for employees and a map of the service floor and back-of-house “to optimize safe workflow,” the company said in an email to customers.

Founder and co-owner Duke Moscrip expounded in the email that he and his team were “devastated” when the health department deemed the Phase 2 setup at Alki inadequate. It appears that the distance between tables failed to meet the six-foot threshold, and that capacity exceeded 50 percent, according to the health department and the restaurant.

Asked about on-the-ground management at Alki, Engstrom referred to the same incident referenced in The Seattle Times’ story: that a group of 14 was seated together. According to Engstrom, this group was seated at three separated tables.

“A few times they did try to move about and our management asked them to stop,” she said in a July 14 email to The News Tribune, adding that Duke’s seating involves fixed booths. “To distance, we closed many tables. That has not changed, but the health department now agrees with our seating.”

None of these issues have overlapped with the Tacoma restaurant, she said.

Despite a half-century operating restaurants in the South Sound, “this is the toughest issue Duke’s has faced,” she continued. “They were completely thrown by this and are working very hard to keep everyone safe and healthy.”

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This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:30 PM.