Tips for Reopening Restaurants

Tips for Restaurants Impacted by COVID-19

Although the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t yet been defeated, America has been taking the necessary steps to get back to “normal”. Now, it’s time to start slowly and safely opening things back up.

If you own a restaurant, you’re probably feeling a mixture of excitement and concern. It’s fantastic your business can return to somewhat normal operations, but you want to make sure you do it in the right way.

So, what steps can you take to protect both your business, employees, and customers? This guide will review everything you need to know!

Follow the FDA’s Food Code

Food safety has always been paramount for the restaurant business. But with COVID-19, it’s even more so.

To aid you in your reopening, use the FDA’s Food Code as a framework and guideline. By following the guidelines, you can reduce or eliminate food borne illnesses. In addition, you will also improve your restaurant's sanitation and hygiene policies, which in turn help to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Measures you should take include:

Don’t allow sick employees to work
Maintain strict hand washing policies
Require employees to wear gloves and masks at all times
Ensure that whomever is in charge is certified as a food safety manager

By instilling a restaurant-wide focus on sanitation, safety, and hygiene, you can help keep everyone who enters your doors safe and healthy.

This is your top priority.

Clean and Sanitize Your Restaurant

Your restaurant was likely following cleaning and sanitizing procedures, but these days they’re more important than ever. Steps you can take to ensure cleanliness throughout your restaurant include:

Make hand sanitizer or hand wipes accessible to guests
Frequently perform restroom checks and scrub downs
Perform routine kitchen and dining cleanses, typically before and after shifts
Don’t use disinfectants on food contact surfaces

Establish Social Distancing Policies

Your floor plan for the common dining area will need to be updated according to social distancing policies. Seating arrangements must be spaced out at least six feet apart and party sizes should be limited to no more than six people at a table.

Because these changes will reduce your available floor space and limit capacity, you may want to consider employing a reservation-only dining model. This will ensure that you can prepare the space to best accommodate your patrons.

Tips to promote social distancing policies include:

Don’t let guests gather in waiting areas – Instead, keep guests separated until they can be seated. To promote this, either put markings on the floor, encourage them to wait and social distance outside, or have them wait in their car until their table is ready.
Limit contact between staff and diners – In the past, you might have had several staff members assist with serving patrons. While this typically creates a better customer experience, it doesn’t improve their safety. For now, assign one server to one table and require the server to wear a mask.
Limit contact between staff – Although this may pose a challenge since kitchens are often cramped with cooks working right on top of each other, try to stagger workstations where you can.

Embrace New Changes

The restaurant industry needs to adapt. Anything you can do to limit contact or spread of the virus is for the better. Actions you can take include:

Ditch reusable menus – Ensuring that the surface of menus are cleaned and sanitized before and after use is simply not worth the hassle and potential health risks. Instead, consider using paper menus which can then be discarded or recycled after each use.
Adopt technology where possible – There are new technologies you can use to limit contact between staff and guests. For instance, it may be worthwhile to invest in digital ordering devices, online reservation systems, and text message notification services.
Add physical barriers – Where it’s practical, consider adding physical partitions. In particular, consider installing a plexiglass barrier in front of the checkout registers.

Encourage Customers to Order Takeout

Diners who would normally be willing to come sit and eat at your establishment, or stand by the bar and order drinks, may feel uncomfortable doing so. On the other hand, they may be more willing to make a phone call or go online to place an order for takeout.

In order to best serve these customers, you should be sure to:

Establish clear protocols – Your customers should have access to clear instructions about to pick up food when they’ve ordered takeout.
Set up notifications – Likewise, your diners should have information that helps them plan their trip to your store. You should set up notifications to let them know when the food is being prepared and when it’s ready, so they know when to leave. This could be as simple as giving them a call prior to let them know the order is ready.
Optimize your pickup location – Dedicate a specialized pickup area. You might refresh your storefront for this purpose, or even consider offering courtesies like hand sanitizer.
Establish curbside pickup – If you have plenty of parking, it may be best to have the meal paid for over the phone or online and then have an employee bring the food out to your parked customer.

And, of course, pickup is not the only option. There’s also...

Expand Delivery Services

Whether you were delivering food already or not, you need to be now. As long as the CDC recommends social distancing, many Americans will inevitably stay home. That doesn’t mean they aren’t craving your food, though.

You may already have a delivery system (or multiple) in place. What you need to do now is optimize this element of your restaurant:

Expand delivery range – If you have a set geographical limit on deliveries, such as a 2-mile radius of your store, consider increasing it to reach additional customers slightly outside your range.
Optimize delivery process(es) — This might mean simplifying or adding to your delivery suite. Depending on your offerings, clientele, personnel, location, and other factors, it might make sense to:
- Handle deliveries on your own, old-school (by phone)
- Keep it in-house, but modern (self-hosted online ordering, tracking, etc.)
- Use one or more programs or apps (Seamless, DoorDash, etc.)

If you can’t offer pickup or delivery options, you can still be proactive by preparing your local business for the future.

Connecting with Nextdoor

Your restaurant is a vital part of its neighborhood. It’s a local attraction, a highlight that’s part of what makes your neighborhood what it is. Your loyal local customers are part of what supports your business. Today, they’re more excited than ever for things to begin to return to normal and to visit their favorite restaurants.

Given the changes that the coronavirus has bestowed on us, you should meet your customers where they are, online, with Nextdoor. As many in your community have been operating solely online, by engaging in the neighborhood hub, you can alert the locals in your area that you’re reopening.

With a Nextdoor Business Page, you can offer help, communicate with your neighbors, and support your community. You also can add take out and delivery options and update your policies and guidelines to ensure that you’re leading with the safest practices.

Getting Back to Normal

No matter how good people are at home cooking, and no matter how well your delivery and pickup options serve your customers, there’s nothing quite like eating at a restaurant. There’s widespread desire building right now for restaurant-quality food and service.

However, by the time you’ve reopened, many of your loyal customers might be financially compromised. While people may want and need a night out more than ever, their ability to afford eating out may be different after COVID-19.

Also, on your end, there may be changes customers will need to get used to. From decor to staffing to offerings, your restaurant after COVID-19 might not be the same one it was before the pandemic (hint: it can be better!).

In any case, you need to prepare for these circumstances.

Be Ready

In order to ensure your short- and long-term success after the pandemic, you need to be sure to:

Assess supply availability and demand
Consider what changes to keep and what to revert
Make sure your diners know about any changes
Prepare for any and every contingency

Most importantly, you need to be ready to roll out the red carpet and...

Welcome Your Patrons Back

Service is your bread and butter, the very thing that makes your restaurant run. You already know what makes for great service in your restaurant, whether it’s breakfast, brunch, lunch, happy hour, dinner, or 24/7 diner-style.

You can’t wait to get back to normal service, and your customers can’t wait to support local, either. In fact, according to a Nextdoor survey in May 2020, 72% of members said they are committed to patronizing local businesses even more than before the crisis. Still, it may be worth doing something special to commemorate and adjust for reopening.

Consider:

Extending or changing your normal hours
- Adding brunch service, happy hour, etc.
- Opening earlier, staying open later

Offering promotions and deals
- A buy one, get one (BOGO) deal on small items like appetizers, sides, etc.
- Special combos or bundles (lunch special, free burger with a beer, etc.)
- Daily food or drink specials (Taco Tuesday, Wednesday Wings, etc.)

Of course, practice caution and prudence. As long as you’re aligned with what’s safe, anything you can do to drum up excitement and morale is not just good for your business—it’s good for all of us.

Serving Your Diners, Now and Later

As you look forward to the weeks and months ahead, times are likely to be rocky. But with enough preparation, savvy planning, grit, and support from your local community, you will make it through.

Your food is getting your patrons through this time—dining in at your restaurant is the first step to a return towards normalcy.

By following the tips above and doing more of what you already do best, you’ll be in a better position to safely reopen your restaurant the right way.

Additional sources:

CNN. This is where each state is during its phased reopening. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-coronavirus-trnd/

FDA. FDA Food Code 2017. https://www.fda.gov/media/110822/download

CDC. Social Distancing. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html

For local updates on regulations & business relief resources available by state, see our Small Business Relief State Guides:

Claim your free Business Page to get started on Nextdoor. For resources on how to use Nextdoor to stay connected with your local customers, pertinent news affecting businesses, and more, follow us at @nextdoorbusiness on Facebook.