‘First day jitters:’ Some Hilton Head, Bluffton restaurants reopened dining rooms Monday
Hours before her Hilton Head Island restaurant opened Monday, Raina Peck and her staff at A Lowcountry Backyard were using blue painter’s tape to cross out certain tables in the dining room.
“We’re good to go,” she said.
The restaurant has half its usual capacity, and notes are scribbled on some of the blue tape reminding guests to stay six feet from each other.
As S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster allowed restaurants to resume indoor dining during the coronavirus, only a handful of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton restaurants took advantage. Many restaurants decided Monday’s warm, sunny weather was enough to keep patrons outside.
On Friday, McMaster lifted restrictions, effective Monday, allowing restaurant owners to decide whether to open their dining rooms for inside service.
Among the handful of noticeable guidelines restaurants are expected to follow:
- Allow only 50% of posted occupancy inside the restaurant
- Space tables six to eight feet apart
- Clean and sanitize equipment, tables, chairs, etc.
- Perform health checks for all employees
- Practice social distancing between employees and customers
‘Anxious to get back’ on Hilton Head Island
On Hilton Head, a smattering of restaurants have reopened their indoor dining rooms.
“We were anxious to get back based on the fact that it was safe to get back,” said Dave Peck, the owner of A Lowcountry Backyard and Pool Bar Jim’s. “But it’s not really a full dining room. We’ve lost half of our seating.”
The Palmetto Bay Road restaurant reopened indoor seating Monday to a modest lunch crowd, many of whom chose to sit outside and enjoy the weather.
A Lowcountry Backyard, which typically has 15 tables inside, has either removed or taped off half of them to comply with the governor’s orders.
On the north end, Main Street Cafe & Pub also announced it would reopen indoor seating Monday.
The restaurant posted on Facebook that it recommended diners make reservations due to the restrictions on how many people can be inside at a time.
“It’s almost like first-day jitters because you want to make sure you’re doing everything right,” owner Faith Roppelt told The Island Packet. “You just want to give customers peace of mind.”
Roppelt, who has managed the restaurant for 20 years, said her restaurant can serve about 50 people under the new restrictions. Things were going well Monday afternoon, she said.
Customers chose to sit inside and out, as well at the bar. Roppelt said staff was stationed at the restaurant entrance to distribute hand sanitizer.
Roppelt said she had mixed feelings about reopening. “Once you’re in this business and it’s in your blood, it’s always good to do what we do. But we’re not doing it the way we always do it.”
Other restaurants that have said they would reopen Monday for indoor seating include Charlie’s L’Etoile Verte on Hilton Head Island, Squat N Gobble in Bluffton, and the Okatie and Port Royal locations of Corner Perk.
Demand for indoor seating?
Some restaurants that have thrived on outdoor dining have been hesitant to transition to indoors.
“I don’t think there’s going be a ton of demand for indoor seating, especially with all the outdoor seating we have,” Hudson’s Seafood on the Docks owner Andrew Carmines told The Island Packet.
Carmines has set up over a dozen tables spaced at least six feet apart on a concrete slab next to the iconic restaurant, which he said was busy over the weekend.
For now, that’s working.
Indoor dining “didn’t make sense for us,” he said. “But that could change. It seems like people would prefer to sit outside, but if we wanted to set up tables inside, we could.”
Coming later this week
Other restaurants have announced plans to reopen dining rooms later this week, including Local Pie and FISH Casual Coastal Seafood on Tuesday, and The French Bakery on Wednesday.
For many restaurateurs, that means training staff.
While the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has not mandated coronavirus- related training, several local restaurants are using the reopening period to educate staff on ServSafe standards and the state’s requirements for social distancing.
“We are opening up our three dining rooms [Tuesday]” Lee Lucier, owner of Fish Casual Coastal Seafood on and Local Pie, which has locations in Bluffton and on Hilton Head, told The Island Packet Monday. “We are spending today making sure the staff is ready, and that we have the safest environment for our guests.”
