ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla — Florida’s governor recently altered the state’s COVID-19 safety guidelines regarding restaurant employees. The question is, is it making a difference?
“Honestly I can’t say that I could attribute [a difference in business] to relaxing the guidelines,” said Jason Pilacek, who oversees the Colonial Quarter in St. Augustine, which includes the Colonial Oak Music Park, Bull & Crown Publick House, Taberna del Caballo, and the St. Augustine Seafood Company.
Gov. DeSantis’ Executive Order 20-192, signed Wednesday, Aug. 5, which lifted a requirement that restaurant employees in Florida be able to provide two recent negative COVID-19 test results.
Pilacek, like many in the food service industry, has to keep on top of changes whenever they occur. He described part of new protocols as if from rote memory.
“Once you test positive you need to quarantine for 10 days," he said. "You need to be at least three days, at the end of that quarantine, non-symptomatic.”
But Pilacek and Bernard De Raad, owner of Cap’s On The Water, say navigating rules and guideline changes during the pandemic has added a whole new discipline to their business.
“From the beginning it was not very clear what to do,” De Raad told First Coast News Wednesday afternoon. Twenty years into owning his popular restaurant along the Intracoastal Waterway, he said he’s never seen anything like the crisis.
“What’s confusing is that nobody has one policy, one line," he said. "We as business owners are left to our own devices to figure out what to do.”
Pilacek shared a similar sentiment.
“Everything changes daily, basically,” he said.
But both men said their operations have constantly sought to meet or exceed official mandates from the beginning. The new executive order, which cites the latest CDC guidelines for restaurants, requires the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to ensure that restaurants implement employee screening protocols to detect symptoms such as fever, loss of smell or taste, and shortness of breath.
As First Coast News visited Cap’s On The Water, employees were trickling in to start their shifts ahead of a 4 p.m. opening. Each of them was wearing a mask and had their temperature checked before entering the restaurant.
“When they come in we take temperature, we keep a log of that,” De Raad described the procedure. “And then we make them wear a mask.”
Pilacek detailed that “any time you’re on our property and you are not seated at your table, we do require that you wear the mask,” adding that the rule applies to employees and patrons alike.
De Raad said feedback from his patrons has been positive overall.
“I mean, people like to see a restaurant take it seriously," De Raad said. "We have to take it seriously as an industry if we want to survive as an industry.”
But a random check with people walking pedestrian-friendly St. George Street in downtown St. Augustine seemed to indicate that they were unaware of any recent rule change. And, in line with what Pilacek said about the effect on business so far, their comfort levels didn’t appear any different either.
“I prefer right now not to eat in any restaurants,” Pauline Oliver of St. Augustine said.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s, like, masks and social distancing,” said Victoria Santee, also of St. Augustine. “It’s still a very bad idea.”
But Angela and James Farley had a different take, strolling through their hometown.
“I feel comfortable. I feel like most restaurants are taking precautions,” Angela Farley said.
Her husband agreed, “I think that relaxing some of the precautions, little by little, is a good thing.”
On at least one final note, anyway, Pilacek said the relaxed protocol might help the restaurant industry.
“We can probably get our employees back, because in all honesty we are still seeing long times for test results,” Pilacek.