A “safer at home” order signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is set to expire Thursday, setting the stage for the reopening of the Volunteer State’s economy. Lee allowed restaurants to resume in-person operations this week.
Similar to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s “Healthy at Work” initiative, Tennessee businesses are following the “Tennessee Pledge’ to safely reopen. The pledge was developed by government and industry leaders; it sets out health and safety standards to allow the kickstart of commerce “without the burden of heavy mandates.”
One of the restaurants that reopened Monday was The Grind Mac and Cheese Burger Bar in Martin. Co-owner Mark Laderman said he was surprised by Lee’s decision to reopen in-person dining..
“We were a little bit taken aback when he first made the announcement to reopen,” Laderman said. “We weren’t expecting it to happen so soon. We were taking advantage of the downtime by doing a lot of deep cleaning and just painting a lot of things, and fixing some things that needed to be fixed.”
Laderman said employees of The Grind were kept on payroll during the closure. He said the staff was enthusiastic about returning to work.
“They were very excited to get back to work. You would think that they would’ve been happy getting paid just to stand around, but in all actuality I don’t think anyone enjoys that,” he said.
While dining rooms are open at restaurants, patron capacity is limited to 50%. The Grind is continuing to offer carry-out services for those who do not feel comfortable eating in the restaurant. Laderman said his staff is taking health precautions to protect customers and the food products.
“Everyone’s wearing masks. Anyone that handles food is wearing gloves. Anyone that handles any dishes is wearing gloves. We’re sanitizing all contact surfaces continuously and anytime a guest leaves, we sanitize the seats and the tables,” Laderman explained.
Tennessee currently has over 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. 195 Tennesseans are dead as a result of the virus. Up-to-date information on the novel coronavirus in Tennessee can be found here.
