Waffle House locations in Georgia are re-opening for sit-down service as the state begins to lift social distancing measures prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp lifted restrictions on certain businesses (like hair salons and gyms) on April 24 and when social distancing restrictions lifted on restaurants a few days later, Waffle House locations in the state were some of the first to open, Bloomberg reported.
Around 330 Waffle House restaurants in Georgia and 70 in Tennessee opened for dine-in service on April 27. These restaurants were ones that were already open for take-out, according to Business Insider, and they will operate quite a bit differently than they did pre-COVID-19.
For example, staff has been closing off some booths and stools to encourage social distancing, and plastic placemat menus are no longer automatically placed on tables. Workers will implement enhanced cleaning and sanitation measures and each location will determine an individual capacity limit. They will also be wearing masks. Waffle House spokesperson Njeri Boss told Business Insider that the restaurant chain has been working on these guidelines for the past six weeks.
Boss also said that the economic issues spurred by COVID-19 need to be weighed equally to the health crisis. "Everyone does not have the ability to work from home," she said: "Because there are jobs in this country that require you to be at the job to do the job."
As of Bloomberg's writing earlier this week, customers seem to be trickling in slowly, many taking a wait-and-see approach to in-person dining in the state, which Waffle House said they expected.
“We always have a contingency plan,” Boss continued. “We’re just going to have to adapt as we see whether customers return or not.”
