Some El Paso restaurants & shops reopen, but others don’t

EL PASO, Texas — Restaurants and retail stores in Texas began the re-opening process on Friday, with requirements to operate at 25-percent capacity to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order allowing it to happen.

The state said that restaurants should offer customers hand sanitizer, and indicated that customers should not be serving themselves at buffets or using shared condiments. The state also advised using disposable menus. Social distancing was key for customers in the reopening and state guidelines didn't allow for seating more than six people per table.

Rudy’s “Country Store” & Bar-B-Q is one restaurant that reopened Friday for customers. Management placed markings on the floor to distance customers in line.

“I think some people will be nervous, some people will be excited,” said Rudy’s area manager Victor Barajas. “Everyone has different feelings about how they feel about the whole thing, but I think personally I’ll feel a little sense of relief getting back to some normalcy.”

The requirements might be easier for larger companies to implement. At least a half-dozen small businesses ABC-7 contacted in El Paso were not planning to reopen Friday.

Paola Russell, the co-owner of Healthy Bite in Downtown, says she feared exposure to her mom, who co-owns the business, and herself. She is set to give birth next week. Russel said her downtown customer base had thinned with stay-at-home orders.

“We decided to shut down completely because it’s literally a desert here,” Russel said. “There’s hardly anyone in here it’s a skeleton crew in downtown of people that are working here. Unfortunately, not enough to stay operating.”

Russel says her restaurant plans to resume take-out services on May 11. She says unfortunately, she does not think she’ll be able to keep all her employees working full-time when the restaurant does eventually begin operating at 25-percent capacity.

The owner of local retail store 'So El Paso', which carries souvenirs and food products, also did not reopen Friday.

“I have an employee whose husband is in stage four cancer chemo. I really don’t want to expose her to all that stuff,” said Anne Mitchell. “It’s going to be extra expenditures with signage and trying to find sanitizer and stuff like that. Our sales are down 80% so we were like ‘wow this is a great opportunity to open our store’ but the reality is, it’s not the right time for us.”