With some states lifting or relaxing stay-at-home orders this month, restaurants are reopening to customers hungry for a dine-in experience.
Alex Smith, owner of Atlas Restaurant Group, re-opened two restaurants in Texas on May 8 and served more than 1,000 people. Tables were set six feet apart and hand sanitation stations were offered throughout the restaurant. Servers donned masks and gloves, and all employees received temperature checks when reporting to work. Smith managed the bar area by placing picture frames on bar stools to mandate social distancing, so patrons would sit six feet apart.
"There's tremendous demand out there," Smith said on CBRE's The Weekly Take with Spencer Levy podcast, noting that they had to turn a "few hundred" potential customers away. "Americans are resilient and I think that the restaurants will bounce back faster than everybody thinks."
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