You can dine out again starting today! But while pandemic restrictions continue, restaurants will have a tough go of it.
If the best a restaurant can do is 25 percent of its maximum occupancy, Louisiana Restaurant Association President Stan Harris says they can’t make money.
“No, they can’t make a profit, but it’s a start of reopening their operations and returning to putting their people back to work,” he said.
And he said there will be challenges in serving the dining public what they’re used to -- but it’s an opportunity to adjust to what’s to come, and give patrons something like normalcy.
Harris says casual places and neighborhood joints might not have as much trouble with that as the places where they wait on you hand and foot:
“I think the fine dining restaurants are going to be further challenged,” Harris said, “because their style of service is going to be somewhat restricted as they go into this, and the guests are going to have to get used to it.”
In New Orleans, restaurants can reopen at 25 percent of maximum capacity starting tomorrow.