Outdoor seating only: Today some Rock Hill area restaurants offer it. Others don’t.
Just 15 minutes after Burgers & Barley opened its patio Monday for lunch, Jason Cloud said he’d received eight phone calls from people asking to make a reservation.
“We have a waitlist,” Cloud, who’s the owner of the restaurant within walking distance of Winthrop University’s campus in Rock Hill, told The Herald. “And if they’re full and there’s a wait, then we’re taking a phone number and people are welcome to take a walk or sit in their car, do whatever they choose, and I’ll give them a call when the table is ready.”
As of Monday, restaurants across South Carolina could begin serving customers outdoors, one of several initial measures the state has taken to gradually reopen the economy amid the coronavirus.
And restaurant owners and managers throughout York County — particularly those who manage restaurants with large outdoor seating areas — are preparing for an uptick in customers.
Burgers & Barley’s patio has about 12 tables, which are positioned eight feet apart to follow social distancing measures, Cloud said. The tables are wrapped in vinyl to make cleaning easier and the restaurant is using disposable menus. The wait staff also makes sure to wear masks and gloves, Cloud said.
Around lunch time, the restaurant’s patio was nearly full and the staff was still fulfilling a good amount of takeout orders.
“We weighed the consequences and what not, and put together a plan of action to make sure everything can be kept sanitary and safe,” Cloud said.
Legal Remedy Brewing, another restaurant with a large outdoor space off Oakland Avenue in Rock Hill, has been selling beer and food to go for the past few months. The restaurant isn’t normally open on Monday and will open its patio seating on Tuesday, said general manager Adam Ferguson.
Ferguson expects Tuesday to be “extremely busy.”
“(Tuesday) is going to be our first experiment with it,” Ferguson told The Herald. “We’ve had a lot of phone calls this morning already about people asking if we are open, trying to learn about what we’re doing.”
Ferguson said on particularly beautiful days — like many this spring — Legal Remedy’s business is “patio-driven.”
“I mean, when July hits and it gets to be 100 degrees, it might be a little different,” Ferguson said. “But when it’s nice like this, like a day like today, 90 percent of people want to sit on the patio.”
Other restaurants in Rock Hill, Fort Mill
Some restaurants haven’t opened their outdoor seating yet, despite the latest lift in coronavirus restrictions.
Napa, a casual dining restaurant with a spacious patio in Fort Mill’s Kingsley town center, is only taking curbside, to-go and delivery orders right now. The restaurant plans to open its outdoor seating sometime in the next two weeks, Napa’s beverage manager Rodney Jeter told The Herald Monday.
That said, Napa patrons and others in the Kingsley area are still welcome to use Napa’s patio.
“We know this is a beautiful area for people to sit down at,” Jeter said. “We just won’t personally be able to serve you outside until we finally reopen.”
Jeter said the patio’s seating has been spread apart to allow adequate social distancing.
“Any patron that is around the Kingsley area, if they’d like to sit down and have lunch, they’re more than welcome to use our patio,” Jeter said. “We just ask that they maintain social distancing and things of that nature.”
The Pump House on the Catawba River near I-77 also did not open its outdoor seating, Julia Routledge, a manager, said. The restaurant plans to continue fulfilling takeout orders for now and reevaluate its decision to open the outdoor area next week, Routledge said.
“We appreciate everybody’s interest and at this point, we’re just going to keep rolling with what we know that we’re comfortable doing, with carry out and delivery because we know we’ve got a sanitized process for that,” she said.
Routledge said the restaurant has one entrance into the building and the outdoor section through an elevator, which is a concern for social distancing.
“We do plan to reopen when the timing is right for us,” Routledge said. “In the meantime, we’re just going to keep doing the to go.”
South Carolina restaurant guidelines
Restaurants are advised to follow guidelines from the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, as well as DHEC.
Included in the SCRLA’s recommendations are doing a deep re-cleaning and sanitization of the restaurant facility, and providing signs throughout the store to remind customers and employees proper social distancing practices.
Ferguson said Legal Remedy has rearranged the patio to spread tables and chairs to follow social distancing plans.
“We’re not allowed to seat parties of more than eight people, and we’re trying to keep all of our tables eight feet apart,” Ferguson said. “We’ve set up a waiting area in our front parking lot, to kind of give people who are waiting for a table an area to wait where things are going to be spread out. …
“We’re trying our best to keep people as distanced as we possibly can.”
SCRLA published its recommendations in a release.
Phase One should be in effect when the restaurant is initially being reopened; Phase Two should be enacted when there’s an increase in customer counts; and Phase Three “could mean decreasing social distancing in restaurants, but this won’t be clear until it is demonstrated that Phase One can be done successfully,” the release said.
Last week, York County Council chairman Michael Johnson said a push to re-energize the economy can coincide with safety measures.
“I am relieved that the governor is easing restrictions and allowing businesses to reopen,” Johnson said. “It is still important that people be smart about going out and continue to follow CDC guidelines and social distancing.
“While we begin the process of reopening the economy, we must be mindful of the threat COVID-19 continues to be.”
By Sunday, DHEC had confirmed 221 cases of COVID-19 in York County.
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 7:36 AM.
.jpeg)