BURBANK, Calif. — A new year, and a not so new message for diners at The Roguelike Tavern in Burbank: no more dining in.

It was a tough decision made my owner John McCormick when he realized the rise of COVID cases in Los Angeles County due to the omicron variant could endanger his staff and guests.

“In mid-December, some of my regulars tested positive, and a couple of their significant others, and then within a matter of a few days, all the sudden I knew more people who tested positive for COVID, than I had in the entire rest of the pandemic,” he said.

And so McCormick was forced to pivot, closing down his beloved local bar and eatery, and is now preparing for takeout only. While at least 75% of Los Angeles County residents have received one dose of the vaccine, the effects of the recent surge are especially hurting small business owners, who’ve already struggled with staffing issues, and fewer customers.

McCormick worries for his bartenders, who already were receiving far fewer tips than usual, but he says their health and the health of his customers, comes first.

“This is a self-imposed closure, so I mean, we are not counting on any help from the government,” he explained. “We didn’t open in time to have receipts from pre-pandemic times so all the PPP loans and that stuff anyway wasn’t really applying to us, so this has been very hard going for us the entire way through.”

As McCormick prepares a popular cocktail at the tavern entitled the Royal Thunder, he’s hoping the takeout support of his usual diners will sustain him and his team until they are able to operate regularly, again.

“We’re just really hoping to kind of stay the course, keep people safe, and with any luck, we’ll start to see numbers dropping soon, and we’ll get back to semi-normal operations hopefully be February, we’ll see.”

For now, it’s back to takeout, until the threat of omicron, is out.