Customers can enjoy an indoor dining experience again in Eureka.
St. Louis County’s indoor dining ban was lifted Monday, seven weeks after restaurants were ordered to close their dining areas and only offer carryout, delivery or curbside service.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page banned indoor dining Nov. 17 as part of the county’s “Safer at Home” orders that were meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. The indoor dining ban was lifted as new cases decreased in the county.
While indoor dining is allowed, restaurants and bars must adhere to certain restrictions.
Restaurants and bars can only seat up to 25 percent of its business’s fire code capacity or the total number of diners that can be seated 6 feet apart, whichever is lower.
The businesses also must close by 10 p.m., and employees need to take the name and contact information of at least one member of each dining party.
JP’s Sports Bar & Grill, 95 Hilltop Village Center Drive, had an outdoor
dining tent for the past several weeks, but bar manager Kaitlin Roth said she is grateful to be able to seat people inside again.
“It helps a lot because while we did have a bunch of people supporting us, we also have people who prefer to dine inside,” she said. “Sometimes, we have people come and they leave.”
She said Brookdale Farms donated a tent to the restaurant so it could keep serving customers.
Roth said there are no plans to take the tent down, which is in the parking lot, because it is not known if the county will have to return to restrictions on indoor seating in the future.
“We are going to keep it up just because there’s so much uncertainty,” she said.
Super Smokers owner Jeff Fitter said the change in restriction was a “relief.”
“I wasn’t surprised it lasted so long because I believe that the shutdown was intentional for the holidays,” he said.
Fitter said having to record the names and contact information of customers at his restaurant, 601 Stockell Drive, likely will be the source of some frustration, but his employees will adhere to the guideline.
“St. Louis County, by its own admission, doesn’t do any contact tracing,” he said. “It’s just frustrating that they put one more thing on us in the restaurant industry that they don’t even do themselves.”
Fitter said his business is currently slow, but that is not unusual.
“We’re very seasonal, being a barbecue restaurant that doesn’t have a full bar, so the vast majority of our business comes in the warmer months when Six Flags is hopping, and people are out on the trails and come to Eureka to enjoy all the outdoor activities,” he said.
Fitter said the reopening of the inside dining area will help.
“The curbside business has been wonderful. We’ve had great response from the local community, stepping up and coming in,” Fitter said. “What’s really important for us for the dining room to be open is the business that we get off of I-44.”
He said a mother and father stopped in the restaurant Monday night after dropping their son off at Fort Leonard Wood.
“If they couldn’t have dined in, they wouldn’t have stayed there and eaten,” he said. “People are driving 10-plus hours to get to their destination. Last thing they want to do is eat in their car one more time.”
Roth said having to close at 10 p.m. will make JP’s miss out on about 30 percent of its normal business.
“After 10 p.m. is when we start getting our late-night crowds,” Roth said. “People like to come and drink and hang out.”
Roth said the business has been offering curbside service.
“Honestly, we get a lot more people who are more comfortable coming in,” she said.
St. Louis County restrictions also require some bars to install a physical barrier, like plastic or Plexiglas, to protect staff and customers.
Roth said JP’s installed physical barriers months ago.
COVID-19 numbers
In the past 14 days, there have been 112 reported cases of COVID-19 in Eureka, the St. Louis Department of Public Health reported on Monday. Since March, St. Louis County had reported 71,447 cases and 1,392 deaths.
According to the Jefferson County Health Department, Eureka has 75 active cases as of Monday. Since March, Jefferson County has reported 240 cases in Eureka, with 165 of those cases being released from isolation.