CHICO — A well-known Chico breakfast and brunch restaurant stayed closed for many months in the pandemic and began 2021 with a new look and vision.
Cafe Coda, which opened in Chico in 2006, shut down for months when the statewide COVID-19 lockdown came down and “changed the course of everything,” owner Eric Danielli said.
“It didn’t feel real even at that moment,” he said.
With so little known about the virus at the time, “I just couldn’t guarantee anybody’s safety.” So he chose to shut down, in part to protect staff and cut costs, temporarily.
“But it just never improved,” Danielli said. “The situation kept deteriorating.”
Two employees were also put out of commission by other sudden life events, and others moved away.
As time went on, Danielli would check in with staff at different points about how they felt operating, knowing they wanted to be fully compliant with new state guidelines for operation during the pandemic.
“And it was pretty unanimous that nobody was willing to go to work, in this kind of (food service) work at the moment,” he said. Without a federal stimulus payment, they could not afford to reopen for months.
“At a certain point, we started to get funding,” he said.
This enabled thinking of a pivot for the business to be able to operate in a new way permanently.
Danielli said he was glad they did not reopen with outdoor dining “parklets” during fire season, as the staff avoided smoke from the North Complex fires in September.
“It felt like the right thing, and it still feels like, (I’m) grateful that we just didn’t take part in any of it,” he added.
When funding was available, Danielli began to consider where to place an outdoor seating area. Given the traffic conditions of Humboldt Avenue, he considered building behind the building and began to negotiate with the property next door to use part of their land to build an outdoor seating area and deck.
So through September and October, he got approval for this deck and along with a friend got it built.
Most difficult to determine before reopening, however, was feasibility — determining demand and being able to staff and cook for that demand.
“I need to know what’s happening tomorrow,” he said. “And if you don’t, it’s just a disaster because if you think it’s going to be busy, it ends up being slow, then you have a lot of staff. If you think it’s going to be slow, you don’t have enough staff.”
So Danielli chose to reopen in a very limited mode at a very “bleak” point in January to ensure growth. Cafe Coda began offering only burritos to go, to be picked up at a kiosk outside the building.
The business met with overwhelming demand immediately. Soon, Danielli expanded the menu again, and redesigned hours to Wednesday through Sunday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., eventually allowing outdoor dining on the new deck.
“And that worked,” he said. “We haven’t had any coronavirus scares where we’ve had to shut down or isolate.”
Having all staff on the same page about compliance like mask wearing and getting vaccinated, with mutual trust, is “huge,” he said.
“We trust each other to show up and be a part of this team and make it a positive experience. We trust our customers to adhere to some sort of protocol and they trust us to do the same. If that trust is violated, things get hard really quick.”
Danielli said the hardest part is staffing as he is struggling to find more employees while experiencing “a constant state of growth.”
Many local restaurants are also hiring now, he said, and most staff have been locals. He said he sometimes feels the weight of carefully gauging staffing levels after three months.
Soon, a cooperative food truck and beer garden-style space will be designed behind the restaurant, near the outdoor deck. Danielli said he is grateful for the location’s amount of land to work with food trucks such as Panini Machini.
With the new concept in motion, “I could very easily see doing breakfast all day and doing live music again,” he said. “That’s very much my goal.”
Social media support from loyal customers throughout the year has driven his motivation to keep going and reopen, Danielli added.
“I don’t take it for granted.”
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March 31, 2021 at 06:25PM
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Cafe Coda makes comeback with new outdoor look, cooperative concept - Chico Enterprise-Record
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