Restaurants re-opening in Michigan

NEW BUFFALO, Mich.-- Will you be dining out this up coming Monday?

Restaurants in Michigan will be able to open in just 3 days as Governor Gretchen Whitmer decides to lift the lengthy stay at home orders that have been in place since March.

Now restaurants and brewerys have to decide when they want to open.

Many south western Michigan businesses are shocked yet excited to have the opportunity to re-open yet they say the decision came out of the blue.

“It definitely came at us pretty quick there, said Beer Church Brewing Company General Manager, Tyler Mantei. "But I think we’re not doing it Monday we’re looking at latest next Friday. We have to get everyone in and trained with all of the safety precautions and make sure everybody’s everything as clean as possible for customers and employees.”

Beer Church Brewing Company has decided to wait and re-open on Friday, June 12th and Ghost Isle, another New Buffalo brewery, is waiting as well until Wednesday, June 10th.

“Right now we’re still learning as that Monday date gets closer and closer what all the mandatory guidelines are," said Ghost Isle Operations Manager, Bobby Louis Sina. "They have come out with some things others I hope to learn quickly here before we open up. I think we were going to open up initially but now it’s been moved back to Wednesday just do try and do everything that’s come up out of the blue in the last week.”

With just a few days to get their establishments in order, both breweries are working hard to make sure their staff and spaces are prepared to handle customers again.

“I mean we have upwards of 70 employees and we just want to get them all in here for at least one good day of training and it’s pretty clean in here because that’s all we’ve been doing for the past 3 months," said Mantei. "We just want to make 100% sure we’re ready and as safe as possible. We just want to move forward and have everything go smoothly from now on.”

Both establishments have been working to implement rigorous additional cleaning measure in between seatings, throughout the dine in process, as well as throughout the restaurant.  

“At the hostess stand we have a plexi glass barrier, sanitization pumps throughout the restaurant we are going to limit areas where a Sebree would type in an order to an I-pad," said Sina.

The owners say they will be highly recommending their patrons wear masks and will be checking guests temperatures with a temperature gun when people first arrive.

With the restaurants hustling to provide a great experience for their guests--their fingers are crossed praying new and old guests decide to support their businesses. 

“We know that people are really looking forward to getting back in here, we get a lot of phone calls," said Mantei.

“There are a lot of customers that come up for carry out that walk to the side of the building and are peeking in the patio the looks on their faces they want to come out and get back to normal as soon as possible," said Sina.