AUSTIN, Texas — If you were planning to take your visiting family to Franklin Barbecue this week, you're out of luck. The famous restaurant posted on Instagram Monday that it is closing its dining room through the holiday weekend after multiple employees tested positive for COVID-19.
According to KVUE's media partners at Austin360, co-founder Aaron Franklin said about one-third of the staff has tested positive, leaving the restaurant with too few employees to make it through the week. He told the Austin American-Statesman that all employees are fully vaccinated and most are boosted, so they're all experiencing mild symptoms.
"I can't believe how fast that spread within the restaurant," Franklin said.
Franklin Barbecue had operated with takeout-only services during the pandemic and reopened its dining room on Nov. 23, according to Austin360. The restaurant hopes to reopen on Tuesday, Dec. 28.
Franklin Barbecue isn't alone. On Saturday, Komé: Sushi Kitchen – which is only open for takeout until February – announced that it had temporarily closed due to positive staff cases. On Monday, Komé said it is still closed.
"We are still having trouble getting staff tested quickly and getting results quickly," the restaurant said on Instagram. "We can not reopen for takeout until we have enough staff to operate the restaurant. We are hoping to open sometime this week and will keep everyone posted."
Elizabeth Hyman, Komé's director of operations, said they've been closed since Saturday.
"We tried to scramble to get everyone tested as soon as we can, both for their own health and for the restaurant. But. unfortunately, testing sites were unavailable over the weekend. A lot of places weren't open on Sunday because this is already is at around five o'clock on Saturday afternoon, so we didn't hear it until a little bit later. And so, yeah, the employees tried to get tested on Sunday, didn't really have a whole lot of luck. And then, of course, Monday it gets busier and the testing sites, they weren't able to get tested until today," said Hyman.
Komé plans to re-open Wednesday at 4 p.m. but are closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas as previously planned.
Other Austin establishments are choosing to preemptively close their doors to try to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Oseyo posted Monday announcing it is closing Wednesday, Dec. 22, through Sunday, Dec. 26, to "rest and regroup."
"With the recent surge of COVID cases, we’re committed to protecting our team and look forward to re-opening next week with additional protocols to support the safety of everyone who enters the space," the restaurant said on Instagram.
Cheer Up Charlies announced on Dec. 16 that it would be temporarily closed for two full weeks, through Dec. 26, to try to mitigate COVID-19 spread. On Dec. 19, the bar posted an update saying it will be closed until Dec. 30 and New Year's Eve.
In its original post, Cheer Up Charlies said it will pay all artists and performers who were scheduled to perform this weekend and it will rebook those shows when there is space on the calendar.
"We have been packed out every weekend since we've reopened in May. We just know if we try to open this weekend, it'll be crowded," the bar said on Instagram, later adding, "We want to commit to and keep to our word as we did in 2020, and keep our space safe and clean for everyone."
Cheer Up Charlies said it is installing a new air filtration system this week, plus some other upgrades, to try to be ready to go for New Year's Eve.
We also talked to Dr. Donald Murphey, who sits on the Texas Medical Association's COVID-19 Task Force.
"Everybody's tired and we've been through this and we've seen the economic impact of shutdowns, we've also seen social impacts of shutdowns ... If you have a bunch of cases, you have to shut down temporarily. But I think we should be trying to find a balance between keeping the economy and keeping ourselves mentally healthy and also mitigating risk of transmission," Dr. Murphey said.
On Tuesday, Austin health officials said there have been no discussions about city-wide lockdowns at this time.
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