LONGVIEW, Texas — Friday was the day for many restaurants in Texas waited for more than a month.
Phase one of the plan to open the Texas economy allows many restaurants to open their dining rooms with certain restrictions.
Papacita’s was one of a handful of restaurants to open their dining rooms in Longview Friday.
One of the restaurant’s managers, Dean Palmer, says, Papacita’s has taken steps to protect their customers.
“Everything that comes off the table goes straight to the dishwasher. We have hand sanitizing stations all over the restaurant,” Palmer explained,.“We've taken everything that can't go through the dishwasher off the table. So there's no butter bottles, there's no honey, there's no salt and pepper. We have those individually sized packages as people ask for them including sugar, sweetener, salt, pepper, everything.”
These safety restrictions include spacing out the seating areas.
“We've measured them out throughout the restaurant. We removed tables and relocated them to different parts of the restaurant so that we could do this social distancing," Palmer explained. "We've done it throughout our restaurant so it takes the thinking process out of that table. And as we've separated everything."
While the dining room is now open, to-go options are still available.
“We've had a very good run with a curbside services and we're still doing that,” Palmer said. “Margarita’s to-go have been a big deal.”
Palmer says overall, servers and customers are happy to be back.
“We're just lucky to be in this city at this time, and we're glad that we're able to do what we do,” Palmer said.