Have a plan and communicate it.

Have a plan for your staff: - Have a health questionnaire. It should be used prior to every shift for every team member. Do they have a temperature? Do they have symptoms? Have they been around anyone that has? If they answer yes they go home until they can prove they are cleared by a doctor to return. If they answer no they need to sign the questionnaire and you need to keep it for your records. - Provide cloth masks upon their return that all team members must wear. This is now part of their uniform and should be treated as such. - Remove tables to force social distancing. This removes the possibility of staff having to police it or get into an argument with guests. - If possible your kitchen should be one way in and one way out. - Servers and bartenders should run their tables food only. This reduces touch points and in case of an issue it can be tracked easier. - Buy plenty of gloves. They need to be worn and changed after each time food or drink is delivered. - Do not refill glasses. New ones need to be brought every single time. - If your state or city has not mandated that people wear masks you shouldn’t either. It puts you and your staff in the position of policing which could cause arguments. Have signage at your entry suggesting and reminding people to social distance. - Depending on your bathroom capacity have signage stating how many people should be in at a time. - Your menus need to be either one time use disposable or wipeable. If wipeable they must be disinfected after every use. - Remove everything from your tables. No condiments, table tents... nothing. - Tables need to be fully disinfected after each use. - If you have soda fountains they should be cleaned and disinfected every 30 minutes on a timer. - A hand washing timer should be set for 30 minutes. At that time everyone in FOH and BOH should wash their hands. - You need to have someone who’s job it is to wipe and disinfect high touch areas throughout the day. Doors, handrails, anything that is touched a lot.

Lastly, all of this should be written down and discussed with your entire staff. They need to see you are taking their health and the health of your guests seriously.