John Gadau (left) and Phillip Hurley in the kitchen, pre-pandemic.
Sardine is one of Madison’s finest restaurants. It’s not really a takeout spot. Phillip Hurley and John Gadau’s French-inflected, farm-to-table bistro is a celebratory space with a congenial bar area, a popular patio deck overlooking Lake Monona, and a bustling but somehow never hectic dining room. Or at least that was Sardine before COVID-19.
Sardine, like Gadau and Hurley’s other two Madison restaurants, Marigold Kitchen and Gates & Brovi, has been closed since March 16, the day before the official state mandate barring restaurants from providing indoor service. Since that time, none of the three restaurants have been open in any capacity — not for takeout, not for selling special family dinner kits. They are foremost among the few Madison restaurants that have remained closed and yet still have intentions to reopen.
Gadau and Hurley announced in early July that Gates & Brovi, the casual East Coast-themed restaurant on Monroe Street, would reopen July 27. Sardine and Marigold Kitchen would remain closed because “downtown was dead,” says Hurley. At Gates & Brovi they would phase in takeout, dine-in and new patio seating.
But that plan was scotched in mid-July as COVID cases began to rise once again in Dane County.
“We closed originally even before the mandate out of a sense of responsibility,” Hurley recalls in a phone interview with Isthmus. To have reopened Gates & Brovi as cases were once again rising locally would be irresponsible — Hurley characterizes the circumstances as “a dangerous cocktail.”
What will it take for him and Gadau to try opening one of their kitchens? “I think data has to show numbers aren’t going up,” Hurley says. “It will take people feeling safe, and feeling confident and comfortable sharing spaces together.” When that will happen, of course, is unknown.
Gadau thinks back to when they first closed the restaurants in mid-March: “I didn’t think it would last this long. I knew [COVID] was a monumental thing, and we wanted to be part of the solution. But it seemed temporary.”
He also didn’t fully grasp everything that closing would entail. “Paying vendor bills, cleanup, all of the stuff in the coolers — we took a lot to the food pantry. And then it was sort of a surprise when it got worse. What is it going to mean to close for a long while? What’s it going to mean for staff, farmers, purveyors? How do we retain our staff?”
Hurley credits staff for, from the beginning, prioritizing safety above other concerns. Staff sentiment, he says, amounted to, “If we have to open, we will, but if we can wait, we would rather wait.”
They realize their employees are hurting and that they will lose key staff members, who will find other restaurant jobs or even change careers entirely. The two have been continuing to offer their staff health insurance and contribute their share toward it. “It’s not enough,” says Hurley. “It’s small, but we want to do it.”
They have been fortunate, they say. Their landlords are giving them a break on rent. “We have been responsible financially and we’re not saddled with a lot of debt,” says Hurley, and all three of their restaurants were well established. “If it were seven years ago, when we had just opened Gates & Brovi, that would be a different story.”
“We’re lucky, we have the luxury of being able to make the choice of being closed instead of hobbling along,” says Gadau.
To consider reopening, “There needs to be momentum, where we see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Hurley says. He feels a sense of optimism is needed, even though no one knows how long before things return to normal.
“Could we open Gates & Brovi? To do takeout? Yeah. But that’s a tough road. Some people are doing it,” he notes, “for various reasons.” But his bottom line is “if we can’t do it really well, it’s not worth the risk.”
Recently, though, he and Gadau have been discussing opening Gates & Brovi’s kitchen — not its dining room — “to employ some people,” for what Hurley calls “targeted takeout” closer to the holidays.
As a restaurateur Hurley knows how busy a place has to be to really make a profit: “We need to be packed. You need to pack the house. In this business, you are always trying to pack the house. I love it when people are together,” says Hurley. “That’s why we went into this. You don’t want a quiet place.” Being open for business without customers being able to come in and experience the joie de vivre of the restaurants — “That’s not a business we want.”
There is nothing more exciting, he says, than to come into your own restaurant and “feel the pulse, the energy.”
Hurley has been staying close to home, getting some takeout from restaurants but mostly cooking at home. “I have trouble [going out]. I want to support people.” But, he says, he’s lost enthusiasm for dining out for the same reason they closed their restaurants in the first place: Is it safe? “I go out for coffee, but it’s hard,” he says. “You want to be in a place that’s busy. I’m wishing my colleagues well, but I’m hunkering down.”
Gadau, likewise, has been doing a lot of cooking at home, “thinking about new ideas, new ways of doing things.”
Both have spent a good deal of time pondering what restaurants will look like on the other side of the pandemic.”It’s not going to be the same,” says Gadau. “It won’t be the same for years maybe.”
“There will be a silver lining,” Hurley says optimistically. “Beautiful things will come out of this. I hope. But it’s going to be a slogfest to get there.”
He says he is at peace with the decision to close, and says “we will open again” even if that’s in 2021.
When things do come back, he says, diners, staff — everyone — is “going to feel amazing.”
