INDIANOLA, Iowa — Hospitality services in 77 counties in Iowa have the opportunity to re-open at a 50% capacity Friday.
The CEO at the Iowa Restaurant Association, Jessica Dunker said in order to make a final decision on whether or not to re-open it’s important for businesses to make a cost-benefit analysis.
“I think every business, large and small that’s being given the opportunity to take the mitigation steps and reopen, even if it’s partially, needs to look at their business model and the numbers and determine if they can do it to the benefit of their long term viability,” Dunker said.
After studying their choices, the co-owners of the 1908 Draught House in Warren County, decided it was best that they open their doors.
“We looked at our bank account and saw the money going down and said we better open and try to get something going here,” Co-Owner, Tom Baldwin said.
Tom Baldwin and his wife, Annie Baldwin, co-own the hospitality group, The Dark Side of the Spoon which operates dozens of Iowa bars and restaurants. However, Draught House is their only restaurant eligible to reopen.
Baldwin said they’ve had to furlough 95% of their staff company wide and this reopen has allowed them to put a few dozen employees back on payroll.
Other businesses believe now isn’t the right time. Owner of the Sports Page Bar and Grill in Indianola, Amanda Ripperger, said not only do they have to re-train old and new staff to comply with new guidelines, but they also don’t want to implement a business plan that may be short-lived if Iowa’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
“I know some people may think it’s early but it’s not really just the fact of it being early. It’s wrapping our head around a whole new way of operating our business,” Ripperger said.
In a Facebook post, they outline things on their to-do list such as gathering sanitation supplies, PPE for staff and reorganizing their seat arrangements to meet social distancing standards.
“We just really don’t feel like we’re quite ready yet. And when we do open up we want to make sure that our staff is trained,” Ripperger said. “And it’s kind of a thing that you have to train your customers for a little bit too. It’s not the same atmosphere that they left that they’re coming back to.”
The Iowa Restaurant Association has put forth the Iowa Hospitality Promise, guidelines that reopening restaurants have agreed to comply with.
Some of these guidelines include,
- 6 ft. distancing between each table
- No one is allowed to sit at a bar
- All alcohol must be served with food(since bars aren’t allowed to reopen yet)
- Strict sanitizing procedures
The Baldwins said they’re looking forward to being on the leading edge of the state reopening, but that doesn’t come without hesitations and they’re preparing for a hectic day.
“Well I think we are worried that we could be more than 50% busy and so we have talked about a process to handle any excess people and how they’re going to need to wait outside in their cars,” Baldwin said. “We’ll have a texting or a phone call system to allow them to come in when an opening comes up. That’s a big challenge there.”