Friday, restaurants across Texas will be allowed to open their dining areas at 25% capacity.
For North Texas restaurants like Taqueria La Ventana in Dallas, this will allow the rehiring of many employees.
“That’s a great feeling to be able to bring people back to work. People are super excited about that. But at the same time people are not wanting to come back until later,” Chef Nico Sanchez said. “For the most part, everyone is excited to serve and earn their paycheck again.
The restaurant, like most in North Texas, has been serving food with a curbside-to-go business model for around a month. Now they spend the week preparing for more customers when they can open the dining area.
“We’ve been moving all the furniture around. All the tables and chairs,” Sanchez said. “Bringing all the food in. We were doing a limited menu and now we are going to offer a full menu.”
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Customers will notice changes at restaurants for the foreseeable future.
While buffets are allowed, an employee must serve the food and there will be no self-serve drink stations.
Seating will be different with tables separated at least six feet apart.
Gloves and masks are not required, but many restaurants will opt to have employees in masks.
Valet parking is strongly discouraged to limit contact points.
Customer capacity could increase to 50% by May 18.
