MADISON, Wis. — With the rise of the delta variant, Wisconsin businesses are creating safety guidelines for themselves. 

Jon Reske is a co-owner of Robinia Courtyard, on East Washington Ave.; it's made up of three spots: Black Locust Cafe, Madison Tap and Jardin. 

He’s lost some staff during the pandemic, so he’s been spending a lot more time behind the bar. He joked about crying of relief when his coworker Jill came to take over for the day. 

It’s been a long year and a half for him and the whole team— almost like a rollercoaster. 

“You get excited and then there's that depression that sets in after your excitement is just dashed away,” he said. “And maybe there's a little pessimism there. But then, I was pleasantly surprised and excited again. And now here we go.” 

Jardin has been closed since the start of the pandemic. But for the other two restaurants in the Robinia Courtyard, the mask mandate is back. 

“If you're vaccinated by now, you generally care about the outcome, and playing your role and trying to put this [virus] to bed,” Reske said. “Everybody knows that this is kind of like, the logical next step.” 

Most people coming in to Black Locust are already masked up. A few had to be reminded that the sign on the door said masks are required. 

The courtyard hosts late-night music. For those events, owners are now requiring people be vaccinated. They’ll have to show their vaccination card to get in. 

“You have on average, 200 people here for any given event … They’re running around, going inside and out; there's no social distancing. People are approaching each other, a dance floor being created, et cetera,” he said. “We decided to just kind of shut that that down and insist on everybody being vaccinated that are coming to our late-night programming.”

Vaccinated people being advised to now wear masks indoors was a real tipping point for Reske and the team. 

“You could see the writing on the wall,” he said. “They were asking that both vaccinated and unvaccinated mask up in those those hot zones. It’s just a matter of time before every like, denser urban area becomes one of those delta hot zones.” 

After a year and a half of a pandemic, it was tough to make it this far. Luckily, the Robinia team has always had to be resilient. 

“Perseverance stick-to-it-ness, being gluttons for punishment,” Reske said, when asked how they’ve gotten through it this far. “You know, we never had it easy here. We were early to market in this district … It’s never been easy.” 

That resilience has gotten them to this point, where they’re still having regulars come in every day. They just need to wear a mask, or at night, be vaccinated.