Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal
Charlie’s Spic and Span is perhaps Las Vegas, New Mexico’s best-known restaurant, famous for its baked goods and homemade tortillas.
It’s also one of the few restaurants in the entire state where, right now, patrons can dine indoors due to COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the governor.
San Miguel County, of which Las Vegas is the county seat, is the only county in New Mexico with a “yellow” classification under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s new tier-based reopening, meaning restaurants can seat diners indoors, at limited capacity. Under the yellow designation, other businesses that are still open can accommodate more people than in other parts of the state.
Counties enter the yellow designation once they have fewer than eight COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents or a positivity rate of less than 5%.
For Charlie Sandoval, owner of Charlie’s Spic and Span for the past 22 years, the timing of the resumption of indoor dining could not have been better. Snowstorms had ruined tents he had set up for outdoor dining and the cold weather left him convinced he would not get any customers during the winter.
“We’re in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in the north – who’s gonna eat outside?” Sandoval said.
And while a modest crowd turned up for the first day in weeks of indoor dining on Thursday, Sandoval said he was grateful for the amount he was allowed to have.
Like other businesses, Charlie’s Spic and Span has been hit hard by economic restrictions, despite its reputation. The restaurant has seen its staff shrink from 44 to around 12 in just a few months.
“Something is better than nothing,” Sandoval said. “I was kind of blindsided by (the pandemic).”
Las Vegas Mayor Louie Trujillo, eating lunch at Charlie’s Thursday, said he credits the success of his city to its early adoption of a mask ordinance and a curfew that remains in effect.
He said the next goal is to get the county into the “green” designation, which would allow increased occupancy in the area’s struggling businesses.
Allan Affeldt, who owns multiple hotels in Las Vegas and serves on the governor’s Economic Recovery Council, said the cooperation between the city of Las Vegas and San Miguel County gave it an advantage in the pandemic.
“I think that’s a really important model for the rest of the state,” Affeldt said.
However, it’s unclear how soon San Miguel – or any other county – will be able to qualify for a green designation. San Miguel narrowly qualified for yellow by keeping its positivity rate just below 6%, but the number of cases per day has increased sharply, in line with the rest of the state.
Sandoval said he’s waiting to bring back employees he laid off because the county could go back into the red in a week, which would once more shut down indoor dining.
For New Mexico’s smaller and rural communities, an easing of restrictions could be the difference between a small business closing or not. Las Vegas has a Walmart, but not the plethora of “big box” stores found in such larger cities as Santa Fe or Albuquerque, which can more easily survive an economic downturn.
“We rely on each other,” Las Vegas City Attorney Scott Aaron said. “It’s a fragile economy.”
As for making sure San Miguel County doesn’t return to the red, Trujillo said his city needs to continue the progress they made early on in the pandemic, particularly as businesses are struggling.
“The business community has been a big part of enforcement,” he said, adding that some people might start visiting Las Vegas since it has fewer restrictions. “They’re all welcome as long as they follow our rules.”
