SC restaurants can reopen Monday while following virus safety guidelines

ROCK HILL S.C. — Starting Monday, restaurants in South Carolina can now service customers outside. This comes after Gov. Henry McMaster announced he was going to lift the state’s stay-at-home order.

When restaurants reopen, they will still have to follow outdoor seating procedures to help keep customers and staff safe.

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Guidelines for restaurants include keeping tables 8 feet apart, having no more than eight people at one table and wiping down each table and chair after every customer.

Restaurants will also still limit the number of people inside, whether they’re walking through, going to the patio or picking up takeout.

“It’s definitely going to be an adjustment,” said Tabitha Donahue, with Dust Off Brewing. “We’ve been doing growler sales, limited contact and now, we’re actually going to have an influx of people. I mean it’s definitely going to be something everyone will have to get used to.”

Some employees may not be that eager to return to their old jobs as businesses reopen Some employees may not be that eager to return to their old jobs as businesses reopen

But owners may find out that it’s not as easy as these restaurants may have thought to get their people back. In this video, reporter Glenn Counts speaks with someone who said going back to work may not be the best option.

Six weeks ago concern over the COVID-19 pandemic forced the owner of Rock Hill’s Roasting Company, Mitch Grant, to close his doors.

“I just told everybody I don’t know what will happen, but apply for unemployment and we’ll see you on the other side,” Grant said.

Monday was the other side. Grant rehired 10 of his employees to help customers who dined outside.

He told Channel 9 that he has had mixed feelings about reopening.

“I was excited. I was terrified. I realized I had a lot of work to do ... I thought I could get a lot of work done over the last 6 weeks to get ready for the grand reopening, but then he told us Friday it was happening on Monday, it didn’t give us much time to prepare,” he said.

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Across town, other businesses opened their patios and some planned to expand outdoor seating.

Channel 9′s Tina Terry visited a few local restaurants and said the customers who came out were excited to get back to some sort of normalcy.

Although the crowds weren’t huge Monday, restaurant owners said they’re confident more will come with each day that passes.

Officials said depending on how outdoor dining goes, South Carolina could see indoor seating resume next week. The Accelerate SC Task Force, which is overseeing this, said they are monitoring the progress closely.

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