Restaurant owners share excitement over reopening for outdoor seating

At the beginning of the COVID-19 global health crisis, restaurants scrambled to figure out how to transition into a more take-out-focused model, but now that outdoor dining is once again allowed, it’s time for another transition.

And some local restaurant owners say they’re excited to begin serving customers in this new way.

Rob Friedman, who owns several of Luzerne County’s popular restaurants, said some of his businesses are ready to begin serving, and others will be coming along soon.

This weekend, the Friedman’s Beaumont Inn in Dallas and Cork in Wilkes-Barre began outdoor service again now that Luzerne County has entered the yellow phase of Pennsylvania’s phased reopening.

“We’re very excited about that,” Friedman said.

According to Friedman, the Beaumont Inn, located on Route 309 in Dallas, was uniquely suited for the transition into outdoor dining.

“It has spectacular gardens, a beautiful outdoor area,” he said. “It’s ideal for outdoor dining.”

Meanwhile, over at Cork, located at Madison Street in Wilkes-Barre, the restaurant will be using its outdoor patio, and will be renting an outdoor tent to set up to allow for more space.

Friedman said that part of the reopening process has been smoothed by a relaxing of state regulations regarding the serving of food and drink in tents, saying that the state is making it easier for restaurant owners to serve outdoors.

The restaurateur said his businesses will be doing everything they can to keep customers safe while they’re enjoying food outdoors.

“We’ll be following all the CDC guidelines to make it as safe as possible for customers and employees,” he said.

This will include having all servers wear masks throughout the night, requiring customers to wear masks while they are not seated and installing hand sanitizing container throughout the restaurant.

Cork will have disposable menus to give to customers — a requirement under the commonwealth’s safety guidelines — while the Beaumont Inn will require orders to be placed ahead of time.

Additionally, the restaurants will have a strict limit on maximum amount of guests; as such, reservations are required for both restaurants.

Friedman said he expects two of his other locations, Fire and Ice in Kingston Township and Grico’s in Exeter, will be opening for outdoor seating in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, up in Scranton, Steve Masterson, owner of Stage West, said his business has similar plans.

Stage West, located on Main Avenue, will have six tables on a second level deck, along with an additional five tables in a tent in the parking lot. The tables will be able to accommodate a total of 44 guests at a time while following social distancing guidelines.

Masterson said his customers are excited to get back.

“People are just excited to be outside in public,” he said.

While the businesses Friedman and Masterson own serve very different needs — with Friedman describing his restaurants as more “fine dining” while Stage West is a music venue under normal circumstances — both described having to get very creative to survive over the past few months, and they suggested creativity will continue to be necessary.

“It’s like a total 180 pivot that we’ve done here,” Masterson said. As a music venue, food was never the main priority, but a transition to take-out and delivery food was necessary to keep the business afloat.

Now, the goal is to provide the customers who do come for outdoor dining a fun experience.

“We’ll be playing music outside into the tented and deck areas,” Masterson said. “I haven’t booked any live musicians yet, but I’m planning to do that soon.”

He also plans to introduce outdoor bar trivia as time goes on.

“I’m going to add as many different things as I can,” Masterson said.

Similarly, Friedman plans to have outdoor entertainment, with a band booked to play at the Beaumont Inn this weekend.

“Our focus is to make it, under the circumstances, as enjoyable an experience as possible,” he said.

But both restaurant owners can agree on one thing: they cannot wait to fully reopen.

“We’re excited that we could offer this to our loyal customers and we hope in the future the governor will continue to relax restrictions,” Friedman said.