Kentucky restaurants, which have been closed to in-house dining since mid-March to prevent spreading COVID-19, will be allowed to reopen Friday. But for those in downtown Hopkinsville, it could take several more weeks or longer before things return to business as usual.
The state is limiting restaurants to 33% occupancy indoors. Servers will be required to wear gloves and face masks, and diners will be expected to wear face masks when they are not seated.
“Financially, it just doesn’t make sense for us right now,” said Heather Dawson, who co-owns The Mixer on Sixth Street with her husband Graham Dawson.
For now, they plan to stick with curbside service because they wouldn’t cover their costs if they reopened the restaurant with limited seating. Overhead for utilities, plus other expenses for additional cleaning and personal protective equipment, would eat into their revenue.
Dawson said they are considering ways to create outdoor dining, which is allowed under the state’s Healthy at Work Initiative.
To help downtown restaurants with the outdoor option, the city is looking at a plan to close sections of some streets in the evenings, said Downtown Renaissance Director Holly Boggess. They are considering some of the numbered downtown streets between Main and Virginia streets. Parks and Recreation would deliver tables with attached benches that the restaurants would be responsible for setting up and taking down each evening.
Boggess said Friday she was still polling the restaurants, but she expects at least a few to accept the city’s offer.
Dawson said her restaurant has to figure out logistically how to make the outdoor seating work because she doesn’t want to cut off access to Sixth Street, which is one way and one lane between Main and Virginia, for her patrons who have liked picking up meals curbside.
The restaurant might be able to use the vacant lot across the street, where the Dawsons previously owned a building they had hoped could house The Mixer.
“Wouldn’t that be very ironic … if we actually serve people on the lot where The Mixer was going to be originally,” she said.
One downtown business that does plan to reopen on Friday is Hopkinsville Brewing Co.
It’s easier for a brewery, said co-owner Kate Russell, because she makes one product that has a longer shelf life than the foods restaurants must sell within in a limited time frame.
Russell said she’s eager to open, even if it means limiting the number of people who can be inside in the brewery. Outdoor seating shouldn’t be a problem except when it rains.
“I have missed people. I’ll take what I can get,” Russell said.
Vansauwa’s Tacos and Vegan Eats will have its food truck at the brewery to serve opening night. Russell said she’s interested in hearing from other vendors who want to sell food at the brewery. (She can be reached here.)
Although bars are not scheduled to reopen until July 1, breweries fall under the regulations for restaurants because they are not age-restricted establishments, said Russell.
The brewery’s hours will be 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 8 p.m. Saturdays. Monday and Tuesday will be carryout and curbside only.
Like The Mixer, Paul Barnes, owner of Main Street Tavern, said he also plans to stick to curbside and delivery for now.
The city’s offer to provide tables for outdoor seating next to his restaurant, on Eighth Street, probably isn’t an option because logistically it would be difficult to have staff running back and forth from the building to the side street, he said. In addition, there is construction next door, where Hal and Elizabeth McCoy are building a residence in the upper floors of the former J.C. Penney building they own.
Barnes said Main Street Tavern is trying to stay in business with carry-out family meals and special offers for first-responders and graduating seniors.
Boggess said The Local, an Irish pub at 10th and Main streets, has expressed interest in using the outdoor seating open. The Local was scheduled to have its grand opening on Saint Patrick’s Day but missed that chance when the state ordered all restaurants to close the day before the holiday.
Another new business, Butter and Grace, on South Virginia Street next door to city hall, prepares ready-made meals and carry-out food and has been able to remain open one day a week during the coronavirus outbreak. It takes orders in advance and customers pick up their food on Wednesdays.
Every food-related businesses in the Renaissance District, with the exception of Ferrell’s, has opened within the last five years. They have been a big part of downtown’s recent revival.
“They are a very creative group of people,” Boggess described. She said she’s encouraged by the steps downtown entrepreneurs have taken to keep their businesses afloat, but it’s hard to watch downtown take such a hit financially.
“It’s been disheartening … so much momentum was in the works, and then to see it come to a screeching halt,” she said.
Several owners have been encouraged by customers who are making a point to continue business despite restrictions brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.
“The support from the community has been fantastic,” said Amanda Huff-McClure, who owns The Corner Coffeehouse with her wife, April Huff-McClure.
She added, “I do not in any way disagree with the restrictions, but for Hopkinsville, it came at such a tragic time because there was so much hope for downtown.”
The Corner Coffeehouse has been taking orders for home delivery every Tuesday and Friday afternoon.
Huff-McClure said she worried business would wane over time but it has remained consistent. She’s also done special orders for groups on the days she doesn’t deliver.
“It may be that we continue under the current model until restrictions ease a little, and add in some pickup options,” she said.
The next steps are still to be determined, but Huff-McClure said she looks forward to getting back to the reason she went into business: to serve good coffee and tea.
Two other businesses — Ferrell’s and Amanda’s Cupcake Cafe — have been closed during virus outbreak while a third, Jennie’s Place on Sixth Street opened after restrictions to in-house dining were put in place.
Owner Jennifer Curry-Adcock rebranded the restaurant as the sole proprietor after her partner in the Bistro on 6th left the business. She had been a cook for several local restaurants before going into business for herself. Everyone who works Jennie’s is a family member. They serve and lunch Monday through Friday.
Curry-Adcock said she didn’t want to wait until after the pandemic to open Jennie’s Place. She was ready to serve food even though all of her business had to be carry-out to start.
“This is all I’ve ever done. This is what I know,” she said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
