Restaurants across the state are allowed to reopen for indoor dining today, but some business owners have determined the capacity regulations aren’t worth reopening for.
Autumn Weston is the fourth generation owner of downtown Lansing restaurant Weston's Kewpee Sandwich Shoppe. She says before the pandemic business was booming.
"It was wonderful. On Saturdays we were picking up and we had new bellies and new faces and it was just wonderful; and then COVID hit," Weston said. "It's been a struggle ever since."
For Weston and her business the coronavirus pandemic has caused a nearly 60% loss in revenue.
Under the latest state order, food and drink industry businesses can reopen on Monday, February 1 at 25% capacity with a 10 p.m. curfew. But Weston said she's not making enough revenue to hire more staff and open up in-person dining.
“Bottom line, we want to keep our customers and my staff safe," she said. "We serve comfort food and we want them to be in a comfortable environment."
Weston said until the capacity restrictions increase she will stick with takeout orders and allow her customers to come inside the store to pick up their orders.
"It's challenging handling all the tasks you have to do with reopening," she added. "Eventually we will reopen but we want to get to a point where we can introduce people back into the restaurant safely."
Reopening in-person dining for Lansing restaurant owner Chuck DeLuca is a challenge he said he's willing to undertake at his restaurant DeLuca's Pizza, but he doesn't think he'll make much revenue on those sales.
"Everyone has to wear masks and customers have to wear one except when they're eating," he said. "Everything gets wiped down when someone leaves and that's all we can do. We are taking all the caution we can take."
Before the pandemic struck, weekends at DeLuca's Pizza were busy.
"Our customers would line up outside our building and wait to enter our 200 person dining room," DeLuca added.
Like Kewpee Sandwich Shoppe, DeLuca's Pizza revenue is less than half of what it used to be. According to DeLuca, takeout has kept the restaurant afloat.
"We are fortunate because we have a lot of takeout and without that we would be really hurting," he said. "We are basically paying the bills. We haven't applied for any PPP loans or anything like that so we are fortunate that way."
The last time restaurant dining rooms were open, there was a 50% capacity limit. The state halted in-person dining a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday. The current state order is expected to expire on February 21st.
