Yale Quarantine Rules Worry Restaurants

By Coral Ortiz, New Haven Independent

January 10, 2022

After struggling to survive a Covid-clobbered holiday, owners of downtown restaurants learned they may see little relief when Yalies return to town.

That’s because under a policy announced Tuesday, Yale is requiring students returning this month to quarantine — including an order for even off-campus students to avoid stepping inside “local businesses, restaurants, and bars” at least through Feb. 7.

Khalil Alsankary, who owns Chap’s Grille on Chapel Street, hadn’t known about the order until a reporter informed him of it on Wednesday. He was shocked.

“It’s going to be hard for us to us keep going with this new quarantine restriction,” he said.

Next door, Est Est Est Pizza & Restaurant owner Sabri Gabril was also disturbed to hear the news. Yale students make up 80 percent of his business, he estimated. Losing that business will make it even harder during this latest stretch of the pandemic, he said.

He and other business owners with Yale clientele questioned why Yale didn’t consult them on the decision, especially since Yale owns much of the commercial property downtown.

The surge in Covid-19 cases with the Omicron variant has hurt business enough that Tomatillo has already had to cut employees’ hours significantly, according to manager Mark Boules. The Mexican restaurant rents its space at Elm and Park streets from Yale.

“They’re serious about their money, but they don’t care about businesses that are barely surviving,” said Boules.

The latest Covid upsurge has already turned the center of the city into a “ghost town,” Raasikh Muhammad Joseph, general manager of Anchor Spa, located in a Yale-owned space on College Street. Joseph noted that Yale requires students and staff to be vaccinated, so he wondered why it needs stricter protocols than those instituted by the city and state. The city has an indoor mask mandate in place.

Details of the quarantine were emailed to students this week by Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd. Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart noted that the rules about patronizing local businesses are part of a broader citywide quarantine. She also noted that students may order curbside pickups from local restaurants.

“All dining will be grab and go whether on campus or off,” Peart stated.

“Our priority is the health and well-being of everyone on campus and those in our surrounding community.”

Restaurants are seeking to make up for business lost to Covid through creativity. Anchor Spa is “leaning on cocktail kits programs and engaging things from afar” once again, just as during the previous surges, said Joseph. Atticus Bookstore and Cafe on Chapel is pivoting to curbside pick-up and making their food “as accessible for students as possible,” said General Manager Tnasia Brown.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.