Stricter COVID Protocols Make Things Increasingly Difficult for Restaurants in Austin and Across the Country

As hot spots of COVID cases confine to spread across the country, many of the nation’s local and neighborhood restaurants are teetering on the brink of closure and bankruptcy. Restaurants nationwide are struggling to make ends meet in the face of crippling restrictions often arbitrarily administered by public officials who are desperate to flatten the newest curves in the year long battle against the pandemic.

Almost unthinkable a year ago, the phrase “let’s have lunch or dinner” has not been mentioned with anywhere near the previous frequency by friends, business associates, and spouses before a moment of serious consideration.

Many restaurant owners have acknowledged that without new PPP loans, they simply won’t make it through 2021. Restaurants in Texas are among the state’s leading employers and as they struggle, so do all the servers, kitchen staff chefs, line cooks, dishwashers, and other employees.

Worse still, the patrons of these restaurants face the same level of uncertainty that confronts their favorite dining spots.

So where do we head from here?

Restaurant customers have to be increasingly diligent in masking, sanitizing, social distancing where possible, and when vaccines become available by all means taking them! The restaurants are taking giant steps on safety and, frankly, it’s time for those customers to pitch in.

Will this work? Yes it will. Restaurants that can demonstrate a strong safety record will be less likely to be hamstrung by restrictive regulations and perhaps that caution just might spread across the board and into personal lives as well!