(OBA®) – Alabama restaurant owners were an island surrounded on all sides by states able to serve dine-in customers while Alabama restaurants were limited to takeout and delivery.

 

Gov. Kay Ivey changed that on May 8 by easing restrictions enacted to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Beginning May 11 state eateries can now seat and feed customers at 50 percent of each restaurant's capacity as set by the fire marshal. Tables must be kept six feet apart. Restaurants on the Gulf Coast are looking forward to opening the doors to customers again.

Brian Harsany, owner of five restaurants and a specialty wine and pet supply shop, is happy with the governor’s decision. He and wife Jodi operate Cosmo’s Restaurant and Bar, Cobalt the Restaurant, BuzzCatz Coffee and Sweets, Luna’s Eat and Drink, GTs on the Bay and Maggie’s Bottle and Tail.

 

“We are very pleased to be able to open our businesses again,” Brian Harsany said. “We will do so in a manner, to ensure the safety of the people we work with as well as our guests. We thank the governor, for the decision she and her team made today.”

Barbershops, nail salons and gyms will also reopen but must maintain social distancing and follow strict guidelines. There is no limit on the number of people who can gather at one time, including churches as long as proper social distancing is maintained.

 

Harsany says he and staff have been looking at ways to not only be cleaner but to also ease any fears guests or employees may have.

 

“When we reopen, we have been meeting on a regular basis to figure out what we were going to do that we were already doing,” Brian Harsany said. “This industry is very well trained in proper sanitation. With that we’re going to build on that and we have 12 sanitation stations that are mounted on pedestals that will be at each entry location of our businesses. We also have 42 dispensers of sanitation products that will be mounted on walls that are high-touch areas. We will also staff and schedule employees at each location that do nothing more than wipe doorknobs, sanitize things where they may have come in contact with another person so we can ensure that we have nothing but clean services and that people can feel very safe.”

 

He is also planning extra precautions when seating guests at his restaurants.

 

“We just found out from one of our vendors they have anti-bacterial wipes and we will probably present those at the time that we’re presenting menus when we are able to seat guests again,” he said. “They can take that, wipe down the menu which will already be cleaned and the table surface. Whatever they need to do to feel more comfortable and to ensure that they have good clean surfaces and atmosphere in which to dine and feel safe.” 

Harsany said he has been in contact with other owners throughout the pandemic and they have been sharing and developing ideas on how to safely reopen their businesses.

“Throughout this time, I’ve been on multiple threads with other restaurant owners,” he said. “I know quite a few of them. I’ve been down here for 25-plus years. We’ve bounced ideas off of what they are doing as opposed to what we’re doing and a lot of ideas that have spawned and have grown have become better and better ideas through communication. I think that’s going to be key. All the business owners communicating with one another and that we do all steps to make sure everybody’s safe.”

 

Unsafe practices by anyone, Harsany said, could hurt everyone especially if a new outbreak occurs after dine-in customers return.

 

“If somebody doesn’t follow the proper guidelines and there is another outbreak and we are shut down a second time, the consumer confidence at that level will be so low at that point that it’s going to be very difficult to rebound after a second one,” Harsany said. “So, it’s imperative that we all do exactly what we’re supposed to do and constantly be on the lookout of things that need to be done correctly or need to be corrected so that we don’t have another outbreak.”

 

He said he and his staff must also feel safe about coming to work and staying safe while they are at work. During the shutdown employees were allowed to keep their health insurance and were being fed one meal a day by the Cosmo’s restaurant group.

 

“When we do open up, I’m going to personally need to know that it’s safe to open up for my employees and myself and my family to come back to work,” Brian Harsany said. “I think of everybody that I work with as my family, they’re my work family.”