Basque Cultural Center has been eerily quiet

“It’s been very quiet. Depressing actually,” he said.

Like every other nonessential business, the Basque Cultural Center shut down that one week in March about two months ago and all the usual activity disappeared with it.

What didn’t disappear are the paychecks for about 50 workers. Camou reports the board of the nonprofit that runs the facility the restaurant supports decided to use some reserves to keep the workers employed until everything could open back up.

“They saved money for a rainy day and it’s a rainy day,” he said.

However, a new day began recently as the center’s restaurant known for its specialties such as rack of lamb, chicken cordon bleu and oxtail, along with its all you can eat soup and salad, began offering takeout and delivery. The menu had to be modified, of course, and the soup and salad is no longer all you can eat and now offered separately. But it’s a start to getting back to normal for Camou.

They did a dry run on Mothers Day weekend and had 80 orders Saturday and 120 orders on Sunday. That compares to about 500 to 700 covers in a typical weekend night. But it’s a start. On Wednesday, they started regular takeout and delivery and will be doing it 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Regular customers are coming in and one man named Leo was so excited he came in Thursday, Friday and Saturday Mother’s Day weekend.

“He was so excited to see me he wanted to give me a hug,” Camou said, adding they settled on an elbow because of social distancing needs.

And once they have the word go, they are ready to open as well.

“We are ready to go. It’s very doable,” he said. “We have the space for it.”

They typically have three sections in the dining room, and now will have two. The third section is moving into a banquet hall. They have spaced out the tables and removed the salt and pepper shakers. The cloth tablecloths will be removed.

And converting to takeout won’t just be temporary, he said. With distancing, there will be fewer diners and fewer banquets and other gatherings and the takeout orders will likely help to make up for that shortfall, he said.

Still, Camou said he is looking forward to opening up and seeing people again.

“There is concern, but there is also hope that we’ll be opening up shortly,” he said. “We are ready to open.”

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Looks like a longtime wish of state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, may come to pass. Hill, an ardent opponent of tobacco, has been pushing to prohibit retail sales of flavored tobacco products across the state.

The bill is one of a handful that are not focused on coronavirus and are a nod to this year being Hill’s last in session and this issue being important to him, Hill said last month. The bill passed the Senate Health Committee with a 8-1 vote in favor, sending it to the Appropriations Committee for more review.

The legislation, Senate Bill 793, would prohibit store sales of tobacco products including all electronic devices and all flavored smokable and nonsmokable tobacco products including cigars, cigarellos, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff. It would also ban “flavor enhancer” e-liquids often used to make DIY vape juices.

The bill has about 40 co-sponsors, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.

Last year, Hill ended up pulling a similar bill rather than accept amendments that erode protections for youth. And if anyone knows Hill, it takes a lot for him to pull his own bill, even with amendments. Hill is known for getting his bills to pass — by any means necessary.

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A small item. Lost in all this coronavirus news was a recent letter to the editor from Paul Stuppi who took issue with the Daily Journal referring to Burlingame as Bgame. He believes it to be BLGM (pronounced Bilgum). That may have been true at some point, but we don’t know anyone who uses the term BLGM. We don’t really know anyone who uses Bgame either, but it is used in our sports headlines because, honestly, Burlingame doesn’t fit that often. If I had to pick, however, I’d side with Bgame. It’s more fun to say.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.