Restaurants taking precautions before reopening
WINTER PARK, Fla. - Chef Vincent Gagliano, of Winter Park restaurants Chez Vincent and Hannibal's, is laying out what eat in dining will look like come Monday. He’s gearing up for his staff and customers.
“I called my staff. Everybody is excited. Everybody is ready to go to work. We can’t wait to open the door to our patrons for them to come and enjoy our food,” Gagliano said.
While he’s not removing any tables, he’s leaving every other table open with a note on it to let his guests know no one will be sitting there to allow for social distancing.
“It will be a new beginning. We need to be safe that is most important. Be safe and keep people safe,” Gagliano said. He’s already removing seats at the bar. And, he plans on using every bit of space available for outdoor dining with tables 6 feet apart.“We’ve got a lot of space over here,” Gagliano pointed out.
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He’s been paying close attention to how others are re-opening and masterminding for the past two weeks.
“I’ve been watching the news all over Europe. We are two weeks behind Europe in closing restaurants,” He explained.
Down the street, Tim Noelke with Park Lights Hospitality, which owns Luma, Prato and Luke’s, is taking a different approach.
“We are not opening Monday and there’s a lot of reasons for that,” Noelke said.
He says his restaurants have been offering a special smaller take-out menu since the stay-at-home order has been in effect and it will take some time to get all the ingredients necessary for his full dine-in menus. His group is bringing in a professional sterilization company to clean all three of their restaurants, and when it comes to re-opening, Noelke wants to make sure his group gets it right.
“We’ve getting all of our measures in place of checking our staff before they come in each day of their shift. Checking their temperatures, masks, gloves, sanitizer. We’re getting all of those steps in place and hourly cleaning processes,” Noelke explained.
Prato, Luke’s and Luma will all announce on social media when they will be re-opening.