LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — Nine years ago, the owner of Austie's Family Restaurant in Hanover Township was dealing with disaster. Now she finds herself running a restaurant in the midst of a pandemic where she can only host 25% of her place's capacity.
"It's very hard and we're trying our best. We did have to raise our prices a little bit, but everybody's working together, all my employees," says Austie's owner Alice Matyas.
Gov. Wolf has announced that beginning September 21, restaurants can allow up to 50% capacity inside as long as they undergo a self-certification process promising to strictly follow all public health safety guidelines by October 5.
"I'm willing to do the certification," says Matyas. "You need to know everything that you need to know. The waitresses and all my employees work very hard trying to keep up with everything that the health inspector. He comes often and he lets us know what needs to be done."
While Austie's will try to bring more customers inside starting September 21, the owner of Stookey's Famous Bar-B-Que in Plymouth Township, Ralph Frank, says his dining room will remain closed while his restaurant continues take-out business outside.
"My opinion is, we don't know where people have been, even if they're sick and walk in an order and stand around, we're just going to do take-out, maybe we'll get them to the counter to do take-out, but I'm not going to open the dining room," explained Frank.
Stookey's owner says he wants to wait until there's a vaccine for COVID-19 and people are well into getting it before he opens his dining room. He says there's already enough stress running a restaurant right now as it is.
"It changes day-to-day, a rule changes, especially in food service. You can or can't do this, you can't get delivery of stuff you would normally get or it's slow, the prices have gone up things like that. Fortunately, we've been able to hold our prices somewhat," says Frank.
Michael Prushinski says he had no choice but to open The Scratch Kitchen on North River Street in Plains Township during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The bank needs, you know they got a mortgage. So I have a mortgage and I got to pay the mortgage so I had no choice but to open up during it," said Prushinski.
But he says it hasn't been easy with the governor's restrictions on restaurant capacity.
"Not at all, the 25% percent. There isn't a restaurant in Luzerne County or in the state or in the country at 25%, not even break even at 25%," explained Prushinski, who says he's happy with the governor's latest update to the restrictions.
"We're going in the right direction, let's put it that way. How far it's going to be before we're up to 100%, Lord only knows. But right now 50% is a whole lot better than 25," added Prushinski.
The owner of The Scratch Kitchen tells Newswatch 16 these new guidelines don't only mean good things for his bottom line, it also means bringing more people back to work.
"Absolutely, because right now we only need so much staff because we can only fit so many people in the building," said Prushinski. "So once we double that capacity from 25 to 50, you know we'll be able to bring more people into work and that's more important than anything right now."
If you are a restaurant owner and you want to learn more about the self-certification process, information will be available on that process starting on September 21.
From the governor's office:
The self-certification documents and information about the Open & Certified Pennsylvania program can be found online starting September 21 and will contain the following:
- A list of requirements contained in the current restaurant industry guidance and enforcement efforts;
- A statement that the owner has reviewed and agrees to follow these requirements;
- The business' maximum indoor occupancy number based on the fire code; and
- A statement that the owner understands that the certification is subject to penalties for unsworn falsification to authorities.