UMATILLA COUNTY — It was 33 degrees during lunchtime on Friday, Dec. 4, but that didn’t stop some restaurants from offering outdoor dining.

It also didn’t stop some customers from taking them up on it.

“I don’t mind sitting in the cold,” Shawn Jordan said. “It’s not bad.”

Jordan was sitting under a large tent outside The Bridge in Umatilla, eating one of the bistro’s signature pizzas. Next to his table, a large, gas-fired outdoor heater helped take the chill away.

He said he would rather sit and enjoy his food rather than take it home, and he is trying to continue supporting local businesses during the pandemic.

“We’ve still got to support restaurants,” he said. “They’re doing what they can to get whatever business they can.”

Paulette Dufloth, who owns The Bridge with her husband, Daren Dufloth, said they purchased the heaters and tent after the newest set of state COVID-19 regulations were announced, allowing restaurants to add outdoor dining to their previously allowed takeout and delivery options.

“We try to evolve with the changes,” she said.

Restaurants in Umatilla County have been on a journey of frequently shifting rules this year, getting put on takeout only rules three separate times — during the initial statewide shutdown in March, when Umatilla County got sent back to “baseline” status in August, and when the state was put on a “freeze” in November. Restaurants were allowed to add outdoor seating, but not indoor dining, on Thursday, Dec. 3.

Dufloth said it’s been a difficult year to be in the restaurant business, but at this point her family has invested too much in The Bridge to give up on it.

Under the current set of guidelines for COVID-19, restaurants in counties that are classified as an “extreme risk” level — currently including Umatilla and Morrow counties — can offer takeout, delivery or outdoor seating. The outdoor seating must have a limit of six people per table, and tents are supposed to be kept open on three sides.

Restaurant owners across the state have voiced complaints that they feel unfairly targeted compared to other businesses. In November, the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Restaurant Law Center filed a joint complaint in federal court for injunctive relief from two-week freeze that lasted from Nov. 18 to Dec. 3.

Some local governments have tried to help ease the burden. In Hermiston, the city is offering downtown restaurants the use of its parking lots for outdoor seating, and donated $15,000 to the Hermiston Downtown District to help with seating and other items needed. While most lots remain empty, The Pheasant Blue Collar Bar & Grill has a large heated tent set up in the lot on Gladys Avenue behind its restaurant.

“We get to open tomorrow,” the restaurant wrote on its Facebook page on Wednesday, Dec. 2. “Yes, it will be outside, but you should see the winter wonderland we’ve put together to make you comfy.”

Outside of the downtown area, Midway Bar & Grill offered dining inside a tent forming a dining space next to its building. The bar is “highly encouraging” people make reservations ahead of time to make sure there will be a table for them.

In Pendleton, the community took steps earlier in the year to expand its outdoor dining options, but trying to revive them on the eve of winter won’t be an easy task.

In September, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce and the Pendleton Downtown Association teamed up to offer a 60-day expanded outdoor dining program, lending out seating, tables, umbrellas and fencing to South Main Street restaurants to use in their on-street parking spots.

In the short term, the organizations hoped restaurants could use the space as an extra source of revenue at a time when indoor dining was restricted by pandemic regulations. In the long term, the groups hoped to use the program as a trial run for more permanent outdoor dining infrastructure on Main.

The program ended in November, and bringing back outdoor dining during a time when most restaurants turn their attention indoors won’t be as easy as dusting off some furniture.

In a Dec. 7 email, Cheri Rosenberg, the chamber’s executive director, explained what obstacles local restaurants were facing.

Rosenberg said the chamber has lent outdoor heaters to the businesses that have requested them, but the fencing used earlier in the fall was leased and no longer available.

Additionally, Rosenberg said restaurants are contending with rules that require outdoor venues to be open on three sides and the overhead costs of serving customers willing to brave the cold.

“The chamber and PDA will continue to help in any way we can across all demographics,” she wrote. “Eastern Oregon has always struggled to be heard at the state level & I think we are seeing that now more (than) ever, but we will continue to speak out & fight for our local businesses.”