It may take a COVID-19 vaccine to reopen the doors of beloved The Players Retreat
On the famous red door of the Players Retreat, one of Raleigh’s oldest bars, a note reads “Closed due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. We will reopen as soon as possible.”
As soon as possible may still be a ways away.
This 69-year-old bar off Hillsborough Street is as hallowed an institution as exists within the Wolfpack realm, a place reliably packed with NC State alums, students and professors, or anyone else nearby in need of a burger and glass of Scotch.
These days, it’s filled only by ghosts and memories, one of many Raleigh restaurants still closed five-plus months into the pandemic.
Owner Gus Gusler said there’s a chance the Players Retreat, or the PR, as it’s known, won’t reopen until there’s a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Right now the plan is to wait until there’s a vaccine,” Gusler said.
North Carolina remains in Phase Two of the state’s reopening plan, which caps restaurant capacity at 50%. Takeout and delivery are allowed. Traditional bars remain closed.
But while restaurants are permitted to reopen their dining rooms, many have chosen not to and have continued to rely on takeout orders and even some groceries to keep a steady stream of business.
Then there are some that haven’t reopened at all. Reopening remains a huge decision restaurateurs all over have struggled with.
For Gusler, the decision to reopen largely hinges on the potential reduction of unemployment benefits, which could drop from $600 to $400 per week. Gusler said he has heard from staff members who want to get back to work. He asked PR chef Beth Littlejohn to put together a potential budget for reopening.
At the outset of the virus, a spring that feels very far away, Littlejohn said the Players Retreat did a few days of takeout, but that it was “painful” and “soul-crushing” to be so slow.
“I think all of us thought we’d be out a month or two, tops, then slowly start to go back to normal,” Littlejohn said. “Then we realized it would be much longer. We’re used to being so busy, but we didn’t feel it was worth the risk at that point.”
Now, Littlejohn is lobbying to reopen. She said she’d like to bring back takeout and maybe a few patio tables, but that the inside will almost certainly remain closed.
“I’m ready to go back to work,” Littlejohn said.
But Gusler said he isn’t comfortable, himself, with the idea of eating in a restaurant.
“I wouldn’t dare step in a restaurant right now,” Gusler said. “There’s no way you could get me to go to a restaurant anywhere. I don’t want to make my staff go back into an environment I wouldn’t go into myself.
Missing tradition
Inside the Players Retreat, the patio tables are stacked in the dining room, and Littlejohn said there are boxes throughout, making way for maintenance and repairs to the kitchen. The charms of a cozy dining room are lost on the COVID-19 pandemic, where the PR’s 4-foot booths make social distancing impossible. There’s a pad of paper by the phone to take down orders, sitting where it was left in March when the restaurant was still open.
“There are still wisps of service sitting around,” Littlejohn said.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, Gusler took off for the coast. For five months, he and his wife have hunkered down on the Outer Banks, returning to Raleigh only twice, once for business, once to outrun a hurricane.
Summers are always slow for restaurants, as the pace of life is disrupted by vacations, out-of-session college or just the general swelter.
When NC State students came to campus earlier this month, a piece of tradition was missing for some, as the Players Retreat stood shuttered. As much as March Madness or football season, Gusler said the start of the school year looms large in the PR as a place for reunions and initiations.
“Move-in is always one of our biggest days,” Gusler said. “You’ve got kids coming in who are second-, third-, fourth-generation NC State students with their parents and grandparents. And the PR is the first place they bring them. It’s always fun, because these are multi-generational families that grew up hanging out at the PR. That’s a lot to lose.”
But sentimentality sometimes butts up against reality. When Hurricane Isaias blew Gusler into town, he drove through campus and said he saw groups of students walking around without masks.
“The only one I saw wearing a mask was walking by himself,” Gusler said.
At the PR, Littlejohn said the return of students usually means the return of normalcy and business. But the coming fall and following winter remain a mystery this year, where even college football may take a hiatus.
“If there’s football, maybe people will want to eat PR food at home,” she said. “No one expects to make a lot of money, we’re just hoping to cover our expenses and pay our staff.”
She knows regulars are missing the PR. In fact, they tell her constantly. A few days ago she got a desperate email from a PR fan pleading for the restaurant’s return.
“It read, ‘To whom it may concern, I’m on the brink of self-destruction, I need you to reopen,’” Littlejohn said. “We get emails and texts constantly.”
Dozens of Triangle restaurants have already closed permanently and data suggests more to come.
“I know everyone misses (the PR), we should be sitting there at the bar with all our buddies,” Gusler said. “I’d love to be eating a Bernie burger with a single malt Scotch.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 2:53 PM with the headline "It may take a COVID-19 vaccine to reopen the doors of beloved The Players Retreat."
