OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — In just over a week and a half, restaurants all across the Omaha area will be able to open their doors to customers.
There will be some rules and mask requirements. They have to keep capacity under 50 percent, they’ll have to keep the tables six-feet apart, restrict parties to six people or less, and they can’t operate their joint as a bar.
“If you are consuming alcohol, you must be sitting down in the restaurant with a meal. You need to be consuming a meal to consume alcohol, you will not be allowed to just go into a restaurant and order a drink,” says Ricketts.
At Crescent Moon they had to lay off about 25 staff members due to the restrictions. Now with those being loosened back up, the owner says they can hire about half of those back.
“We’re hoping that our regular clientele will come back,” says Bill Baburek, owner of Crescent Moon.
Baburek says sales have been cut by 60 percent but they’ve been able to survive because of takeout.
“Definitely have business and people that are kind of chomping at the bit just to come in and have a sandwich, or a burger and a beer or whatever, just for a change of scenery,” says Baburek.
Down the street at Noli’s, their place would normally be packed on a weekend night.
They’re excited about the news but are still trying to figure out how and if they’ll handle dine-in customers.
“We haven’t really decided how we’re going to proceed forward. We’re going to make sure that we check with all of the health organizations and make sure we can provide a completely safe place for our customers, for our guests,” says Duncan Joyner, night manager at Noli’s.
