The coronavirus has once again disrupted business on Ellenville’s Restaurant Row. On Sunday, September 6, Tony & Nick’s Italian Kitchen, the popular eatery on Canal Street in Ellenville, announced a temporary closure due to a member of the kitchen staff testing positive.

Eric Cafaro, proprietor of Tony & Nick’s, explained, “One of our kitchen staff tested positive on Saturday. So, we are sorry to inform you that we have to close temporarily. This individual who tested positive would never have had any direct contact with any of our guests and customers. We are in constant communication with the Ulster County Board of Health and are meeting all their requirements.”

Cafaro said later, “The entire restaurant staff is being tested. The two servers have already tested negative. I was tested Tuesday morning and will know within 48 hours. We continue to work with the County on how to properly reopen and will notify everyone as soon as we can.”

In the meantime, the restaurant is being scrubbed down. “Every surface, every refrigerator, it’s a full three- or four-day sanitizing that we’re doing. And when we’re done, we have a commercial company coming in to do it again. You just can’t mess around with this stuff.”

When asked when they might reopen, Cafaro said, “We’re looking at next Friday, the 18th. But we aren’t going to rush anything. It’s a hundred thousand percent safety first.”

In March, at the beginning of the outbreak in New York, Genaro Garcia, proprietor of Gaby’s restaurant on Canal Street, had to temporarily close his restaurant after testing positive. Then in April, Shadowland’s Brendan Burke battled the virus. To date, Wawarsing has had 147 positive cases, of which 12 are considered “active” by the Ulster County Health Department.