Coffeeshop Culture Reawakens

Six days after the state of Connecticut commenced Phase 2 of reopening the economy during the pandemic, allowing coffee shops and restaurants to resume indoor dining at 50 percent capacity, Michael Sakelarakis had just finished taking the final exam for his pediatric advanced life support certificate. He decided to head to The Coffee Pedaler, his favorite neighborhood coffee shop.

Sakelarakis is a recognizable icon of the COVID-19 pandemic. An emergency department nurse and volunteer emergency medical services personnel, Sakelarakis has witnessed first-hand the damage caused by the COVID-19 virus.

On this day, a sunny summer Tuesday, wearing his blue nurses’ scrubs emblazoned with Yale New Haven Hospital logo, he just wanted to get an iced latte.

“I think that going to a coffee shop is important for a community — because it’s one of the few areas especially in the digital time that we live in that people can socialize, share cultures and really get to know who is living next door to you,” Sakelarakis said as he sat on the wooden benches outside the brick-walled building housing the coffee shop. Behind him, a rainbow-colored neon sign hung in the storefront, reading ​“OPEN”.

As coffee shops cautiously reopen with new social distancing measures in place, residents of the East Rock neighborhood have taken their first tentative steps out to reconnect with their friends for coffee and reestablish a much-cherished daily habit that was lost during the early days of the pandemic.

Safe Distancing Measures

Sylvia Ryerson was back Tuesday at her favorite coffee joint, East Rock Coffee, a neat street-side shop with big picture windows, potted plants. As the state slowly reopens, coffee shops and restaurants can now have customers come inside to eat, but only at half the usual occupancy rate. And they are required to implement safe distancing measures to reduce the spread of the virus.

And many establishments, like East Rock Coffee, aren’t yet offering in-door dining. Just ordering.

So, unlike in the past, Ryerson entered through one door and left through another. She waited outside to receive her order, to be placed by the barista on a table through a side window. Only six out of the usual 40 seats had been laid out. There was minimal contact and maximum safety.

Ryerson ordered iced black coffee with whole milk.

She said she felt safe getting coffee here because of the safety measures the East Rock Coffee staff have implemented. A Plexiglass barrier stands between the cashier and the customer. All the staff wear masks. Only one customer can be in the store at a time.

The owner of East Rock Coffee, David Oricchio, had spent the eight weeks since his coffee shop first reopened experimenting with different ways to reduce the risk of virus transmission to his customers and employees. Initially, he allowed two groups of customers in at a time, separated by a Plexiglass barrier. But he realized that the waiting customers would tend to wander, jeopardizing his attempts to practice social distancing in the 350 square-foot space.

So five weeks into his reopening, he reorganized, moving the several-feet-tall Plexiglass barrier to the cash register, and decided to only allow one customer or a pair of customers who are together to be in the store at a time. ​“It’s mostly about arranging the space physically so many people don’t even have an option to get close,” Oricchio said.

Nico Saraceni, who has been the manager of Blue State on Orange State since it opened in May 2019, has overseen the store’s transition from being shuttered during the early months of the pandemic to reopening in late May. He and the staff have reduced indoor seating capacity to 50 percent, measured exactly six feet of space between all tables, implemented procedures to sanitize surfaces several times a day, stocked up on masks and gloves, and gotten into a routine of repeated hand washing.

“I hope that if we are reopening, all the proper precautions are taken. We have to do it at a very gradual state, to make sure we have enough room for social distancing, erring on the side of caution,” said Dan Firimont as he sat down for an iced mocha latte in the deserted outdoor seating area of Blue State on Orange. “If it was more packed with people, I’d be more hesitant to sit outside.”

The pandemic has compelled Oricchio to readjust his expectations and change the way he measures the success of his coffee shop. “East Rock Coffee’s goal is now to survive and have enough revenue to keep staff employed,” he said; making profit is no longer a main priority.

He has managed to rehire all original staff and is hiring again. For now, he estimated, the shop’s weekly sales are around 80 to 85 percent of the pre-pandemic times, up from just 15 percent in the first week of reopening. While he is content with this, he said, he anticipates that business will become more difficult as the weather gets colder and customers are less willing to wait outdoors for their take-out coffee.

As the pandemic and economic downturn jeopardize the existence of small businesses, Oricchio emphasized the key role played by coffee shops like his in creating a sense of community.

“We realized what we could offer when we first reopened was safety and normalcy,” said Oricchio. “You could walk into a place you used to walk into everyday, even though it was covered in Plexiglass and you couldn’t stand and talk with your neighbor, at least you could interact with your barrister for five minutes, get a drink you’re used to getting and feel like some part of your life is sort of normal again.”

Other than grocery shopping trips, Ryerson’s twice-weekly coffee runs to East Rock Coffee are the only times she goes out these days. She lives alone and many of her classmates have left town. “Because graduate students are so isolated and working from home, going out to get a coffee is just a way to take a break.” she said. “Trips out like this are a meaningful way to interact with the public.”

Meeting Neighbors

On the same hot Tuesday afternoon that Sakelarakis got his iced latte, Nik Sormaz had lunch in the outdoor dining area at P&M Orange Street Market with his friend Tom Messer. It was one of their first times connecting in person since Connecticut commenced Phase 2 of economic reopening. Sormaz had a chef’s salad and Fanta. Messer had a bag of chips. Only three other diners sat in the outdoor seating space flanked by Orange Street one one side and P&M’s on the other.

Sormaz said he does not mind dining outside, especially when it is less crowded and filled with people that he knows. But he is aware he has to remain cautious, especially because he has older friends who are more vulnerable to the disease.

“Like a lot of people, we think we are bullet proof but there may be collateral damage around us, so you have to be careful,” said Messer.

The pandemic has reminded Sormaz of why he loves living in East Rock, where he has been a resident for the past 20 years. Even when everyone was self-isolating at home, he appreciated that he could still say hello to the cashier at P&M, his local grocery store. He saw how local New Haven restaurants still made people feel cared for — well-fed —by remaining open for take-out.

He is not sure what the future of dining-in is, but is certain that East Rock’s coffee shops are and should remain an important part of the community. After all, Sormaz and Messer, who have been friends for more than a decade, first met at a coffee shop, Lulu’s, which previously occupied the storefront that is now East Rock Coffee. Since then, the coffee shop at the corner of Orange and Cottage Street has expanded. And so has the circle of neighbors with whom Sakelarakis gets coffee with every morning. 

“It’s hard to know what the appropriate protocol is during a pandemic, but understanding you are part of a community helps you get through a lot,” he said. Going to coffee shops is a ​“great way to meet people.” The diverse group now includes a Russian, a native of Zimbabwe, a judge, a psychologist, and an Ecuadorian architect stuck here because of the limited flights leaving the U.S. during the pandemic. They all meet on this corner for coffee. 

Sakelarakis, whose family originates from Galatas in Greece, values the interactions he has had with total strangers in New Haven’s coffee shops. ​“There are so many people from overseas, so many states, checking out Yale, things like that, it really brings the light to the community,” he said. He’s met a thru-hiker who was making his way down the Appalachian Trail and they talked about Mountain Katahdin. He’s met a fellow person from Greece, from Athens.

“I think reopening the economy is important to maintain the identity of New Haven because if we don’t open up, small businesses like coffee shops can only remain open for so long without going belly-up, which would be really sad,” said Sakelarakis. As he walked away with his iced latte, heading for an evening shift in the emergency department of the Yale-New Haven Hospital, it was clear that even essential healthcare workers just need a coffee sometimes.