Restaurants in Arkansas will be allowed to seat up to one-third of their prior volume of guests for dine-in service starting May 11.
Under the guidelines released by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tables must be positioned no closer than 10 feet together to keep parties at least 6 feet away from one another.
Any employee who interacts with guests will be required to wear a mask that covers their mouth and nose. All others are encouraged to wear one but will not be required to do so. Patrons not wearing a mask can be denied service.
Every employee must wear gloves that are changed after every customer interaction or task.
Buffets, salad bars, self-service drink stations, bars and on-site entertainment amenities such as pool tables cannot be reactivated. As in most states that have decided to allow the reopening of dining rooms, any tableside surfaces that a guest might touch, from salt shakers to chairbacks, must be sanitized before another party can be seated at the same table.
“Based on current data that shows we have slowed the spread of COVID-19, we have decided it is safe to resume dine-in restaurant service with some common-sense limits,” Hutchinson said in announcing his plan for limited business openings. “This is a significant but cautious step on the path back to normalcy. We will monitor the success of this step and move to Phase 2 as quickly as we safely can.”
Arkansas is taking a different tack in capping the reopening capacity of restaurants that opt to resume dine-in service. Texas and Florida have tried to hold down the number of guests being served at any given time by mandating that restaurants reactivate no more than 25% of their pre-COVID-19 seating. Most of the others easing stay-at-home directives have set a limit of 50%.
Arkansas establishments will be forbidden from admitting more than one-third their pre-COVID-19 number of guests at any given time, according to the governor’s guidelines.
The state joins a rapidly growing list of jurisdictions that have given restaurants a go-ahead to resume dine-in operations. Georgia, Tennessee and Alaska have already dropped the prohibition against on-premise dining. Texas lifts its ban Friday. Most of Florida will ease restrictions Monday.
On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo named several representatives of the restaurant industry—including Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Danny Meyer; New York City Hospitality Alliance President Andrew Rigie and Sylvia’s proprietor Tren’ness Woods-Black—to his 117-member NY Forward Advisory Board. The group was formed to counsel the governor on reopening his state, the nation’s major hot spot for COVID-19.
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