Within an hour of reopening its doors Thursday, nearly every available table at The Standard Pour was occupied.
“We are opening cautiously, but we feel very confident that we’re taking all the right precautions and our team is ready and prepared. So, we’re super excited about opening,” said owner Eddie “Lucky” Campbell.
The last time Campbell talked with NBC 5 was a couple of months before when his staff was busy fulfilling pick-up and delivery orders for the newly created “The Standard Door.”
It allowed him to move all of his staff from the restaurant and his bars, The Parliament and The Clover Club, under one roof.
He’d said at the time, the operation wasn’t profitable. It was simply a way to keep his staff paid.
It was the first change he made to adapt in the wake of COVID-19, and it wouldn’t be the last.
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“There will be new codes and new guidelines and you will start adapting to those, and you will form a plan based on those. And just about the time that you start your plan, then it changes again,” said Campbell.
That happened just three weeks into delivery operations when he determined it was no longer safe to have his employees come in.
“We kind of brought it to a halt immediately,” said Campbell.
He said that’s also why he chose not to open back up on May 1 when Texas gave restaurants the green light to open at 25% capacity.
But just a day before the industry evolves yet again to increase that capacity to 50%, he said there’s no use for delaying opening any longer.
“I feel as though we’re headed to a full opening, so I think its the business owner’s job to do that as safely as possible,” said Campbell.
At The Standard Pour, that means employees wear masks and gloves, tables spaced for distancing and implementing single-use products like menus, salt and pepper dispensers and utensils.
Though bars will be allowed to open come Friday, Campbell will hold off on opening the Parliament until next Wednesday. He’ll first open The Clover Club for special events only once its safe to do so.
*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.
