SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - Governor Carney reduced the capacity limit for indoor gatherings at businesses and public spaces to 30 percent on Monday, November 23rd, 2020.
Restaurants can seat up to six people at a table, but no more than four of them can be over the age of 18. Only two can sit at the bar together. Many businesses say other restrictions have had more of an impact than the 30 percent capacity limit.
33 people is the indoor dining limit at Jerry's Seafood in Lewes, but owner Chris Becker says that's not a problem.
"Thanksgiving, we had three times as many carry outs as we had people eating in here," Becker says.
In a statement to WRDE, Agave owner Chris McKeown says the 30 percent capacity limit forced the restaurant to close for take out only.
"We are still full steam ahead on take out seven days a week, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m." McKeown says. "We moved the little market area at the normal entrance of the restaurant over to the other side to be able to display more merchandise and give customers more space to walk around and shop. We have our holiday gift card sale running until December 24th, or until supplies last. Since this has been so popular in the past we expect a lot more patrons entering the building then usual. Having a larger market area gives us the ability to take care of more customers at once to properly social distance everyone and keep the market area free of to much traffic."
Most La Vida Hospitality businesses remain open for dine in, especially as customers take advantage of outdoor dining. Big Chill Brand Manager Matt Garbutt says they've been able to turn a lot of what would be dine in orders into take out. The group launched its Crave Delivery Kitchen in October 2020 as more customers opted for delivery.
"People at this point are pretty understanding, especially if we have to separate larger parties into separate tables," Garbutt says.
At 30 percent capacity, Everyone Fitness can still hold 174 members. A more noticeable change is that people must wear face masks at all times, even while doing cardio. Owner Mike Anthony says there are other ways besides cardio to get an intense workout in.
"When you lift weights and you're tearing that muscle fiber, that stays with you for 24 hours," Anthony says. "You're burning calories for 24 hours. When you just do high intensity cardio, within a half hour that fat burning drops off."
Anthony says it's not the masks, but overall COVID restrictions and shutdowns since March that have caused membership to decline.
Click here to read the third revision to Governor Carney's emergency order.