Outer Orbit in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights is part-bar, part Hawaiian-inspired Asian fusion restaurant and part-pinball salon.
Owners Elisabeth Kohnke and Christian Gainsley had to shut their doors for a few months early in the coronavirus pandemic. They managed to stay afloat with help from Paycheck Protection Program loans.
"We were making plans. Contingency plans," Gainsley told KCBS Radio. "We were looking at our bank account thinking…" That's when Kohnke finished her husband's sentence: "How much further can we go? Week by week."
They pivoted to takeout, built an outdoor parklet and put focus on food.
"The parklet has been instrumental in keeping our sales to a sustainable amount," said Gainsley.
Outer Orbit's outdoor tables will help make up for the indoor capacity limits that are in place even in the state's yellow tier, an upgrade San Francisco could get as soon as Tuesday. With arcade games off-limits, they staged events streaming pinball games live on Twitch.
They’re hoping to welcome people back to play indoors as restrictions ease.
"We’ve worked out a novel system that we think will work in which we’ll have what are called ‘pinball pods,’ where you reserve a table and it comes along with two pinballs that are also reserved," Gainsley explained.
Under the yellow tier, indoor restaurant capacity will remain capped at 50%.
Indoor bars will be back, too. They’re allowed to serve customers indoors at 25% capacity, even if they don't have food service.
"This whole pandemic has caused operational changes that are going to be lasting," said Gainsley. "We were more of a quick-serve bar environment prior to the pandemic, and now we are table service."
The city is also expecting to ease outdoor mask requirements for fully vaccinated adults in accordance with the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That might make things a little easier for the Outer Orbit staff.
"We don’t want to play like the police any more and have to tell people to keep their mask on all the time," Kohnke said. "So, it’s kind of nice that things are easing up a bit."
They have been through shutting down and opening again before.
This time, they're hoping there will be a key difference.
"Yeah, I mean, thankfully people keep taking the (COVID-19) vaccine," Gainsley added. "It keeps getting out there into the community."
"I’m really thankful, too, that San Francisco is so on board with vaccinations."
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