ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Spring break 2020 was a bust for many St. Augustine businesses. However, after one year, things are very different.
This year, some attractions and restaurants are so busy, that some of them are setting record sales.
It’s hot in the Osprey Tacos tiny kitchen, and it's getting hotter.
"We’re pushing out tacos constantly," General Manger Kyle Cedeno said. "Even our slow days, we’ve been extremely busy lately."
Cedeno said the take-out taco café with four picnic tables keeps hitting record sales. It is just a few blocks east of the Bridge of Lions.
"In the past couple weeks we’ve been hitting numbers that we’ve been hitting in the summer [our busiest time] now consistently," Cedeno said.
Old Coast Ales Brewery is reporting the same increase in business.
"Oh, we’ve seen record numbers in sales," owner Matt Hooker told First Coast News.
Attractions are hitting high marks too. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is super busy. The Ximenez-Fatio House Museum is having its biggest month ever, and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is "packed."
"I think it’s a combination of people getting vaccines and feeling more comfortable and a lot of people have just been stir crazy," Alligator Farm Director John Brueggen said.
Certainly, the pandemic has changed some things for businesses.
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm does not require guests to wear masks outside, but it does ask people wear them at the inside exhibits.
Also, the COVID-19 pandemic forced some businesses to shake up their business models. Old Coast Ales started selling to-go items, and now it will continue to do so.
"Previously they were a small percentage of our overall [business]," Hooker said. "Now it’s a staple: 20% of our revenue is from to-go products."
Certainly, not every business is thriving or setting records. However, many people such as Brueggen remember being shut down one year ago.
"We’re not 100%," Brueggen said, "but income is better than no income!"
Around here, the traffic tells part of the tale of busy businesses, and so does the constant trail of tacos.