Safety In Huntsville Restaurants

WAAY 31 is joined by Mike Roberts, the co-owner of Sportspage in Huntsville, to talk about what's changing with in-house dining in the city.

Being with us this evening.

>> mr. roberts: you're welcome.

>> najahe sherman: how did it go this weekend, opening your dining area?

>> mr. roberts: it was -- it was different.

You know, it was a little bit strange and weird.

I think it went okay.

Being 50% capacity is allowing us to spread and a little easier.

>> dan shaffer: what specifically did you do to make that easier for your employees and the diners that come in?

>> mr. roberts: well, what we did as far as the table -- is that what you're asking?

>> dan shaffer: exactly.

How does the restaurant look different now?

>> mr. roberts: yes, sir.

What we did is we took half of the -- we're not doing any dark -- we're not doing gatherings.

We put all the extra tables and chairs and bar stools akd using the back here and store them until we can be at full capacity again.

In the meantime we just removed half of the bar stools and we have a table and floor and let all the customers know six feet apart.

>> najahe sherman: what other safety measures can customers expect when they heat at sports page?

>> mr. roberts: well, when you come in there's a sanitizer station at the front door.

You can get sanitizer.

What the girls are doing is wear masks when they serve.

We're not wearing gloves but we're keeping clean and keeping stan advertised because cross contamination is so difficult.

Every little thing you touch, it's just better to clean the things for us on our end.

The tables are being cleaned.

Everything that everyone is touching is being touched on every half hour or so.

That's what we're hoping, we're trying to keep that standard.

Dadges is there something the customers themselves are telling you that they want to see specifically done?

Is it more masks, is it gloves, is it more hand sanitizer, that kind of thing?

>> mr. roberts: you know, to be honest, no.

We're okay.

Everyone is coming in pleased with what we've got so far.

You know, and there's going to be the age old question of when you get a few drinks in somebody, keeping them apart is more difficult.

But we're doing so.

We're doing the best we can, the girls are.

And everybody is pretty happy with the measures we've taken so far.

>> najahe sherman: after opening weekend, what changes might you make moving forward?

>> mr. roberts: well, we're going to make sure we have more extra things.

We do have extra masks for the girls.

We had some of the those made for them.

Wee keep them in a gallon bag, zip-lock bag to keep in case something breaks.

We haven't crossed that bridge yet.

We had that to cover.

We're going to need more of it when we go back 100% capacity.

It's not going to be time to really let up at that point.

We wouldn't think, and here anyway.

>> dan shaffer: as a restaurant owner, how would you like customers to react to what you're doing or not doing?

Mayor battle said today, just get up and leave and go somewhere else if you don't feel comfortable.

But what would you like customers to do?

>> mr. roberts: we would love to be addressed about it.

We would know what we can do to make them happy.

You know, if we're unable to, by all means, do, get up and leave.

If you feel uncomfortable here or somewhere else, you don't have to be there.

It's still america.

Do those things, you know.

>> dan shaffer: good point.

>> najahe sherman: how is your business doing right now from an economic standpoint?

>> mr. roberts: well, i tell you, we're really pleased that we're making money again.

That's kind of it, to be able to make some money.

It's not 100% or anything.

But since sportspage is a neighborhood bar and restaurant we have a lot of loyal regulars.

And they want to come and support us and they can.

And that's still at that under 50% capacity rate.

So our capacity is 175.

We're operating at 80 right now.

We felt like that would be a safe number to go with to keep it under and still have storage space for all the stuff we had to move.

And so i mean, i don't know what else we could really do other than just kind of make cross that bridge when we get to it for everything.

>> dan shaffer: are you having any trouble getting your employees to come back to work?

Did you even need to?

Did you let any of them go, furlough any of them?

>> mr. roberts: well, during the close-down, absolutely.

No, everybody is pretty much back.

In a full or part-time capacity they were at before.

We don't have very many employees.

I was telling joseph, awesome camera guy a while ago, that it's usually a bartender and a cook.

We got a bartender and a server and a cook.

So we don't have a whole lot of employees.

We're a family operation and here.

They're all back, yes, sir.

>> najahe sherman: i know they're glad to be back.

Look to the future -- >> mr. roberts: yes, ma'am.

I'm sorry.

>> najahe sherman: how do you see your business continuing to adapt during this new normal?

Rig i think we're just going to keep an eye on it.

We've all just agreed just to be patient.

We're going to have to be because we don't know -- i wo see it flare-up and i don't want it to until they can figure out how the kill this thing and give us medication for it.

Until that time, operating at 50% is what we'll do.

When we get back to 100%, wheel -- i still think if we see anybody that we physically think is sick we're going to ask them to leave.

It's just good business.

>> dan shaffer: is there something you would like to see more of from government officials other than not shutting the economy down again?

Is there something that you might need from them going forward?

>> mr. roberts: well, i would really like to see to get constant updates on this -- on what we're going to be doing about it.

Lots of things have killed lots of people in the country over the years.

And we've always been able to come up with a vaccine.

That's just what i'm hoping and praying for at this point.

>> najahe sherman: despite whether to dine in a restaurant right now -- yes, we understand that.

Deciding whether to dine in at a restaurant right now is such a personal choice.

If someone sees this interview with you and maybe they're a little reluctant to go out and dine in, what would you tell them about sportspage?

>> mr. roberts: well, the first thing i want to say if you're still reluctant to dine out, then don't.

The second thing i would say if there's something -- thie has been here a long time.

We're cleaning constantly anyway, before we had all this stuff happened.

We still cleaned constantly here at the sportspage.

We always have.

It's an old place.

We keep hard to keep it where people like to come in.

When they come in and if they're unhappy, very free to ask what we're doing.

We're very willing to explain how we're doing it and what we're doing, the measures we're taking a r.

And if they have suggest suggestions i would sure like to know.

>> najahe sherman: for no one who has been to the sportspage, what is on the menu?

>> mr. roberts: typically we have bar food, burgers, fries, wings.

We have specials here, too.

We have plate lunches five days a week.

A plate lunch or a sandwich and a side.

And you know, it's a variety of different southern-american type cooking.

Delicious.

>> dan shaffer: mike roberts, sportspage owner.

Appreciate