What customers, workers should expect as Indiana restaurants reopen
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The leader of a state association representing restaurants outlined Tuesday what customers and employees should expect as the businesses reopen.
Stage 2 of the state’s Back on Track plan, released Friday, said — in all but three counties, Cass, Lake and Marion — restaurants could reopen Monday with dining room service at 50% capacity a week. Employees must wear face coverings. No bar seating or entertainment is allowed. Also, restaurants must provide a COVID-19 safety plan to employees and customers. Lake and Marion counties may enter Stage 2 beginning May 11. Cass County can begin Stage 2 on May 18.
In Tuesday’s coronavirus teleconference from Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Rick Tamm of the Indiana Restaurant and Lodging Association spoke from Grindstone at the Monon in Westfield. He said some restaurants may be challenged to operate at 50% capacity, due to already limited seating, and the unknown is how customers will react.
Plus, he noted, restaurants have always had to meet stringent safety and sanitation guidelines and undergo health inspections inspections.
So, what should customers expect as restaurants reopen? Here’s what Tamm said:
- One-use menus or texted menus.
- Wait in your vehicle for seating.
- One-use condiments.
- Tables removed or marked off; every other booth in use.
Stage 2 also calls on people 65 and older and high-risk citizens to stay at home whenever possible. Also, the plan recommends all residents wear face coverings in public settings.
Tamm said, “We have a commitment to our team members as well as our guests, but we are also asking, that Hoosier hospitality promise, of key things from our guests. If they are not feeling well, do not come in. If you are exposed to someone that is believed to have COVID-like symptoms, do not come into our restaurant. If you have underlying health conditions, do not come into our restaurants. Let us serve you through delivery and carry-out.”
Tamm noted a state marketplace that will open Wednesday will be vital to help smaller restaurants get personal protective equipment (PPE).
Luke Bosso, chief of staff at Indiana Economic Development Corp., earlier in the governor’s briefing announced the PPE Marketplace. He said supplies will come from state manufacturers, some who are making items such as sanitizer they didn’t previously make, and from a surplus of items secured by the state government. More shipments of PPE to the marketplace are expected as soon as Friday.
The PPE Marketplace will be for businesses or nonprofits registered with the Indiana secretary of state. Those businesses or nonprofits must employ less than 150 workers and must have a need for the PPE to reopen and comply with safe workplace requirements.
Bosso said restaurants and other businesses that don’t qualify for the marketplace can contact the Indiana Economic Development Corp. for help, but he encouraged them to first talk to other businesses to see what they could offer as a stopgap until ordered PPE supplies arrive.
Indiana restaurants employ 245,000 workers and have more than 12,000 locations.
Also during the briefing, Michael Cunningham, founder and CEO of Cunningham Restaurant Group, says his business is excited to reopen and get back to work but wants to be responsibly safe. The business operates 20 restaurants in Indiana, and others in Ohio and Kentucky.