Governor Roy Cooper announced that the state will remain in phase two of North Carolina’s three-phase reopening approach for at least another three weeks. The executive order also includes a mask mandate, with masks required for diners until they are seated at their tables. Restaurants now won’t be able to open their dining rooms at full capacity until July 17 at the earliest. We spoke to several restaurant owners to hear their reactions to what the news means for their businesses. —Kristen Wile

Michael Bowling, chef/owner of The Hot Box
“I understand it, I didn’t think that we were going to open up all the way anyway. I didn’t think we were going to go into phase three with the numbers going up and all of those things. Honestly I was just in Virginia and you have to wear a mask in public there. It was different kind of a culture shock. I’ve always got a mask with me, but I never really always have it on. So I think that it’s a necessary move that we’re making. And as far as Hot Box goes, we’re not doing awful. I mean, we’re down from where we were before Covid, but that’s kind of to be expected. But we’re doing decent enough numbers that we’re paying the bills. And I’m almost at 100 percent of my staff. I still haven’t brought my sous back, but we’re almost back in 100 percent staff. So, I mean, we’re in a good position to survive another three weeks in phase two.”

Ashley Boyd, chef/co-owner of 300 East
“I don’t think it changes anything for us right now. This is what we’ve been doing and we’re just now kind of getting comfortable with it, so like three more weeks is not really a big deal to us. And the mask order, we’ve already been requiring that of our guests. I feel like if we have to keep doing phase two, we have to keep doing phase two. I don’t think that we feel safe going into the next phase at this point, anyway. We’re going to go for safety, even if it means extending our own phase two longer than the official orders.”

Bruce Moffett, chef/owner of Moffett Restaurant Group (Barrington’s, Stagioni, Good Food on Montford, NC Red)
“We shut down Stagioni for a few days because a person tested positive. I would say we’re humming along at like 50, 60 percent of what I’m used to. It’s weird. Sometimes the patios are busy, and sometimes no one sits. I’m not really sure why that is. I’m not surprised by what the governor said. I know that we’ve had kind of a big spike in Covid cases. My curiosity is like in places like New York, where they’re starting to reopen but they’re not seeing a big spike, you know, is it just everyone got it and there’s just not enough people left to get it? What’s the deal with that? I’m not surprised by it, we can survive it. We’ll muddle through. My only real concern is that you know, as this spreads and if people start getting cases that are going to close down the restaurant, that’s going to make life a lot more difficult.”

Greg Zanitsch, chef/owner of The Fig Tree
“I was worried we were gonna move back to phase one. So if mandatory masks and staying in phase two can prevent us from having to go back to curbside and no customers then I guess we will deal with it. You know, we’ll just roll it out. To be honest, this isn’t the busiest time of year for us going into the Fourth of July weekend. So I don’t think it’ll impact business terribly much. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been staying at 50 percent capacity most every night we’re open, so we’re fortunate there. My first reaction was, ‘Shoot.’ And then I was like, it’s probably not the end of the world.”

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