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The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association is asking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to let restaurants resume dine-in service on May 29, one day after the current stay-home order expires.
But some Detroit restaurant owners think it may be too soon, reports Brenna Houck of Eater Detroit. They are concerned not only about whether things will be safe for customers and staff, but if they can find enough people willing to work in the current environment, and if social distancing in the dining room will allow them to be profitable enough.
A sandwich from Mudgie's
April Anderson, owner of Good Cakes & Bakes on Livernois in northwest Detroit, tells Eater:
“We don’t know enough about Covid to say it won’t come back. People are still getting new cases, people are still dying from it. So I don’t feel like it’s a good time to open back up.”
She has good reason to be concerned. She lost an uncle to Covid and her mother, father, and grandmother have tested positive.
“I really would prefer it would be once they had a vaccine, but I’ll go to the end of the summer when I know that there has been a flattening of new cases.”
It's helps, though, she says, that the shop is doing pretty well with online ordering with curbside service and delivery.
Greg Mudge, owner of Mudgie’s Deli and Wine Shop in Corktown, also has reservations. While he's now selling sandwiches and groceries, he's had trouble bringing in new employees.
"Bringing on servers and the amount of people that you need to operate a full-service situation to a 25 percent or 50 percent crowd doesn’t sound financially smart,” he tells Brenna Houck. Some industry experts say restaurants have to average 80 percent capacity to be profitable.
Read more here.
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