On Monday, Dec. 21, Toni's 24-Hour Restaurant announced via Facebook that due to an employee's positive COVID-19 test, the restaurant would be shutting down for a deep cleaning and reopening at 7 a.m. on Dec. 27. It's the most recent of a spate of COVID-19 related closures in Arcata this month.

“We’ve decided to close, we don’t have to close,” says owner Toni Collenberg. She says the employee who tested positive worked in "a pretty isolated situation ... not with the whole crew" of 37 employees. With the exception of having to cancel orders for some 100 pies for Christmas, it wasn't the worst possible timing, given plans to close for the holiday. Collenberg was able to cancel some supply deliveries and the staff “salvaged what we could and gave the employees a lot of things.”

The popular truck stop and late-night/breakfast/milkshake spot turns 44 years next week, still under its original owner, Collenberg. “We’ve really survived well through this,” she says of the strains of the pandemic. It helps, she notes, that Toni's was already known for takeout and had covered outdoor dining. Still, she says, "It’s definitely not a shot in the arm … this whole thing has been really hard on all employers.”