Island Ways | The dining out desert

Orcas and Nantucket Islands are each roughly the same size and the same distance off their respective coasts. We share the same concerns about the high cost of living, lack of affordable housing, tourist management, ferry problems and environmental degradation. We are living on opposite ends of the country but many of the issues and opportunities are the same. Recently theOrcasonian and the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror decided to share articles of mutual interest with our readers. The following article from Nantucket should sound very familiar.

Nantucket in winter isn’t exactly the dining mecca it is in the summer. The majority of restaurants, especially those at the higher end, close around Christmas Stroll if not before, their staffs headed to warmer – or colder – climes, or simply taking some time off when the pace of life and the flow of diners slows down considerably.

Those of us who have lived here for a while are used to it. A few year-round stalwarts stay open, and we’re glad they do. But lately, more of the year-round restaurants seem to be closing for extended periods of time, some of them for a month or more, creating a dining-out desert that never really existed in the past, at least to this degree.

It’s understandable, given the difficulty in finding staff, the high cost of living and the obvious decline in population.

But there must be a happy medium. One place to start might be better coordination among those restaurants that are closing to schedule those closures so they don’t all occur at the same time. In years past, when there was a more active Nantucket Restaurant Association, that happened. Those yearround restaurants in need of a week’s break or two coordinated their closing times to ensure at least a few would always be open, even in the quietest weeks of winter.

A rejuvenated Restaurant Association might also be able to facilitate some kind of employee-share system to ensure there is enough staffing for those restaurants that stay open, while at the same time providing income opportunity for those restaurant workers who stay on-island. It could put money in the workers’ pockets, and ensure reliable, trained staff for those restaurants that stay open.

The town made the right decision several years ago to charge those restaurants holding a year-round liquor license a fee of $500 to $600 if they close for 60 consecutive days or more. It was right to put it on hold during COVID-19, and right again this week to return it to practice.

The restaurant business is a tough one, especially in the quiet of winter. Those restaurants that stay open year-round need to take advantage of every busy weekend and holiday they can in the off-season. They pay a lower license fee than their seasonal counterparts because of it. They should not have to face competition from other restaurants that aren’t playing by the rules, closing for weeks at a time and only opening to cherry-pick the prime weekends. A $500-$600 penalty isn’t much, but it might help dissuade the practice.

At the very least, they should apply for a seasonal license and give up the occasional busy off-season times, not siphon off business from those restaurants truly committed to staying open year-round, and giving year-round residents a better idea of what restaurants are truly open when the island is at its quietest.