As Governor Tate Reeves detailed his latest Emergency Order last Monday, restaurants across the Magnolia State had some of their restrictions removed in order to use their dining rooms.
But some restaurants may still delay opening their doors, at least for now.
This Executive Order amends Reeves’ Safer-At-Home order, which he signed over a week ago and still remains in effect until Monday, May 11. The new guidelines go into effect at 8 a.m. on Thursday, May 7.
"I don’t want to wait if there are steps that we believe we can safely take now to ease the burden on Mississippians fighting this virus,” Reeves said earlier this week. “There are thousands around the state that are set to close their doors for good. They cannot hold on much longer. I hope that this will not only be some much-needed relief for those restaurant employees but also provide for some joy for the people of Mississippi.”
While restaurant occupancy and wearing masks are large components of the order, ensuring customer safety is more complicated than that, local operators told The E-T this week.
Trish Berry, owner of The Blue Biscuit, is “weighing everything.
“We’ll be deciding between now (Tuesday) and Friday morning if we’ll do anything different.”
Like most restaurants, Berry has been serving on a limited capacity with lunch on Friday, Saturday and Monday and dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“We’re already doing takeout and some delivery. Our overall cleaning procedures really haven’t changed that much but we do have sanitizer all over the place for servers and patrons to use. We already did regular thorough cleaning in the front and back of the house.”
At The Crown, Jennifer Roughton Schaumburg notes they “will not be opening” inside dining this week.
“We’ve had a lot of things to figure out. The way we’ve been doing our dessert table and our passing of the hot bread at The Crown will have to be re-figured,” she said. “We may not open (inside dining) for another week or two.”
The Crown is open for takeout from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and “we have one table that people can sit at outside. And we have the beautiful courtyard next to The Crown with benches where people can sit and enjoy lunch.”
Some restaurants are weighing the financial incentive to reopen under the new guidelines.
At Peasoup’s Lott a Freeze, co-owner Brenda Belk Lott won’t be opening the dining area but will keep the curbside and take-out window running at full steam.
“If you’re a bigger restaurant and can seat 200 people and you can still feed 100, it might be worth it,” she said.
Peasoup’s has furloughed some of its employees but with a small dining room, the restrictions don’t make a lot of financial sense to only be able to serve so few customers.
“Yes, we’ll open the dining room but I still don’t think some of the restrictions are right. We will spread the tables out inside. With the restrictions, we will only seat about 20. Not sure if it’s worth the trouble but we will give it a try,” she said. “We are fine. Our take-out business has been really good. People are eating. They just can’t come in. We’ve put four tables outside and we’ll continue to do that. Every day we just spread them out and put about three chairs at each table.”
Across the parking lot, Lost Pizza will have limited seating to abide by the governor’s orders.
Co-owner and founder, Preston Lott, noted there will be changes with a doorman to keep the legal number of customers in and changes inside to help with safer, contactless dining.
“We’ll have half of our tables blocked off with chairs turned up on the table with a sign on it asking not to move the chairs. We’ll have outdoor seating and we’ll spread that out,” Lott said. “We’ll be sanitizing everything and instead of using counter service with numbers on the table we’ll assign each table a number. We’ll limit the amount of hands on as possible. We’ll use disposable plates just to be a little safer. We are stepping up our regular sanitary and cleaning routines in the meantime.”
Lost Pizza will still offer curbside and pick-up orders as well.
In Drew, Stafford Shurden is taking a “wait and see” approach to opening his dining room.
In the meantime, he’ll continue curbside and delivery orders at Stafford’s on Main.
“We’re going to keep doing business as usual – delivery and curbside,” he said. “From a business standpoint, is it worth it (to reopen with restrictions) and am I being responsible to the community and to my staff who have concerns.”
Shurden notes that he’s been “pleasantly surprised” by the support from folks coming to eat despite the new way of dining.
“We’re a small restaurant with a small staff. If you pull one person and put them at the door and pull one to sanitize, you don’t have anybody left,” he said “It’s not going to be business as usual. We’re going to have to be thoughtful as to our next move as restaurant owners. It took us about two weeks to adjust to this new normal. And now here we are changing that up a few weeks later. How often are we going to be adjusting? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. With the amount of regulations, they are adding to it, gives me a little pause. The idea that we could backslide right back to where we are now means they could pull that rug out from under us in a week and say ‘hey, we were wrong, we shouldn’t have done that. So, we’re going to put back up the no dining.’ I’m ok with the way it is now.”
In Inverness, Mark Gary at Hometown Restaurant will open his doors and dining room for customers to come in and sit down with social distancing.
“We’ll open up Thursday night and they have to be spaced out at 50 percent capacity,” Gary said. “You can come in and sit down and eat and we still have carryout. They have the option of coming in to pick it up or we can take it out to them.”
Gary notes that even with the changes in dining in the beginning of the quarantine, his restaurant has been getting by.
“I don’t think by opening the doors you’ll get stampeded by people. I think it’s going to take six months to a year before people start coming out and I think that’s a good thing. We’ve got to get this thing under control. But we’ll survive it. We’re paying the bills and paying the labor. We’ll be ok.”
Just down Little Milton Avenue a couple hundred feet, Town Market and Restaurant will continue its revised plan of curbside and take out but won’t open their dining room just yet.
Nora McFadden is looking for the outbreak numbers to start falling instead of increasing.
“We’re going to continue to do carryout until the total number of corona cases starts going down,” she said. “We’re just not going to open (inside dining) this week. We’ve already done everything that needs to be done.”
Town Market and Restaurant is open for carryout and curbside lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. They open at night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
“We’ve had good success with our carryout,” she said. “We’ll look at it again next week but I just don’t think anyone needs to jump into this until those (corona virus) numbers start going down.”
Carry out and curbside dining is still available but give your favorite restaurant a call to see if their inside dining is open before making the trip out to eat.
Hometown is open Monday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Reeves’ executive order stated the following guidelines/orders, in part, for restaurants to be able to open:
• Before in-house dining can resume, the entire restaurant and bar must be deep-cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized top to bottom.
• All restaurants and bars are expected to take every step necessary to implement the regulations, orders, and guidance from the Mississippi State Department of Health and CDC to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• All employees will be screened daily at the beginning of their shifts, including asking whether they have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days and have they had a fever in the last 48 hours.
• Cloth masks must be provided to all employees who come in direct contact with customers. Employees are required to wear that mask throughout their shift.
• All employees must be provided training on how to limit the spread of COVID-19.
• No more than 50 percent seating capacity in both indoor and outdoor dining areas, and floor plans must be updated to ensure at least 6 feet between each group. Party sizes will be limited to no more than 6 people per table.
• Bars and bar areas that do not offer food services are to remain closed.
• Minimizing person-to-person contact through technology, like mobile or online reservations and contact-less payment, is encouraged.
• Customers will be screened upon entry. Restaurants and bars must post signage at each entrance stating no customer with a fever or COVID-19 symptoms are allowed in.
• Cafeteria-style buffets and food stations that are manned by restaurant staff are allowed with appropriate barriers to limit contact. Self-service buffets, food stations, and drink stations are prohibited.
• All restaurants and bars must place hand sanitizer at all entrances, hostess stations, in/near bathrooms, and at cashier stations.
