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The Mask Struggle
• LET MANAGERS DEAL WITH UNMASKED CUSTOMERS. Don’t put your staff in the uncomfortable position of having to tell people
| BY ED AVIS | Karla Garcia remembers well the woman who ran
without masks that they need to put one on—leave that up
into her restaurant, Tecalitlan Mexican Restaurant in Chicago,
to management. At Maudie’s Tex-Mex, which has seven locations
without a mask and asked for her takeout order. Garcia pointed
in Austin, managers politely explain the policy to anyone not
to the “No Mask, No Service” sign and politely asked the woman
wearing a mask. “We’ve had a
to don her mask.
couple of customers who come
“But I’m just picking up my food,” the woman said. No dice,
up without a mask, and when a
Garcia said. The woman walked out in disbelief, returned a minute
manager explains to them that
later wearing a mask, and said, “You’re lucky, I had one in my car.”
this is our policy, they under-
Garcia says she thought, “No, you’re lucky, because you weren’t
stand that,” says Elisa Munoz,
going to get your food!” “I took the sign down and changed it to ‘No Mask, No Service, Not Kidding!’” Garcia says. Getting hassled by customers who don’t want to wear masks is an experience many Mexican restaurant owners share.
Maudie’s director of human resources. • OFFER DISPOSABLE MASKS. Have a basket of disposable masks, preferably individually wrapped, available for customers who show up without masks. That eliminates the excuse of not having one. • REFUSE SERVICE. Everybody needs customers, especially now. But as a last resort, you may need to ask a non-wearer to leave. “I feel
“It was very hard to make
like I repeat myself 50 times a day about wearing masks,” Garcia
people wear a mask,” says Pepe
says. “I want to say, ‘You either want to eat here or not, buddy!’”
Stepensky, owner of Porkyland, a Mexican restaurant with two locations near San Diego. We tried to make them understand that it was for their own good.”Porkyland staff even offered customers clean, unused masks if they showed up without one. “A lot of
“Crisis Management Team” Helps Chronic Tacos Manage COVID Situation
people didn’t want to use them and said, ‘How do I know it hasn’t
| BY ED AVIS | When the COVID-19 crisis took hold across
been used?’” Stepensky says. “It really was a headache.”
America in mid-March, restaurants scrambled to get a handle on
The bottom line is that restaurant staff are more at risk than
the situation. Chronic Tacos, which has 49 locations across the
customers since they are exposed to the constant flow of guests.
United States and 8 international locations, deployed a tactic
A guest who pops in for a minute—like the woman who came to
more commonly associated with government agencies: a crisis
pick up her order at Tecalitlan—is probably at little personal risk.
management team.
But staff who are working with customers all day long are at risk if everyone is not wearing a mask. “I feel bad for my staff, because not only are they serving, but they’re also trying to police the masks,” Garcia says. “We get put in a tough position. I tell people I’m just following the rules and trying to keep everybody safe. And people still don’t care. They say, ‘This is ridiculous.’ I tell them, ‘You’re being ridiculous. You just gotta wear it until you sit down, then you can take it off.’” Mexican restaurant owners interviewed for this story offered a few tips for getting customers to wear the masks: • MAKE YOUR SIGNS OBVIOUS. Garcia says adding “Not Kidding” on her mask sign has helped. “People will try to run in—then they see the sign and stop dead in their tracks,” she says.
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el restaurante | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020
“When the crisis first hit, there were just so many unknowns,” says Michael Mohammed, the company’s CEO. “You weren’t just concerned about sales, you were worried about everybody’s
