Red Arrow Diner recently opened its Nashua location, and takeout is being offered. (Courtesy photo)

NASHUA – In accordance with guidance from the state, some restaurants will begin reopening next week, and while some businesses are eager to welcome customers back, others are taking caution and delaying their reopening date.

Under the guidelines set forth in Governor Chris Sununu’s Stay-At-Home 2.0, restaurants will be able to gradually reopen on May 18. While this phased-approach seeks to allow for modified outdoor dining to ensure customer and employee safety, not all eateries are planning to take advantage of this opportunity right away.

Owner of Riverwalk Cafe Steve Ruddock cites safety as the main reason he will not be reopening operations immediately. The cafe has been offering a limited curbside pick-up option over the last month or so, but outdoor dining will be delayed. Ruddock said he is thinking of a reopening sometime between June 1 and June 15 for modified takeout with curbside pick-up.

“I think I’m going to wait to see how conditions are and what I feel safe with as far as my staff and the public,” Ruddock said.

During the first or second week of June, Ruddock is considering a gradual reopening, but mostly limited to takeout with adequate spacing and probably some delivery service through DoorDash, for example. For now, the cafe is offering curbside pick-up on Saturday mornings only, from 8-10a.m., featuring coffee and pastries. In a couple weeks this service will be expanded, but for now those pick-up orders are handled online in advance. Information is available on their Facebook page for ordering in advance for Saturday pick up.

For the last four weeks Riverwalk has had items ready for folks to pick up, where customers would get in line, properly spaced out, but Ruddock did not feel 100 percent comfortable with that arrangement. That is when he switched to this new way of handling to-go orders.

“I do think just from talking to other restaurateurs that the curbside pick-up is going to be the way to the future,” Ruddock said.

Moreover, one local business looking to open back up on Monday is Boston Billiard Club & Casino. Since closing their doors temporarily due to the current circumstances with the coronavirus pandemic, the casino has done in depth cleaning of their facility, which will continue as they reopen next week. There will not be any gambling or billiards available, rather just food and drinks served outside on their patio, which will feature spaced out tables for physical distancing.

“We’re definitely confident that it will be a place people want to go,” Director of Marketing Kevin McMahon said.

In terms of safety measures, staff will have their temperatures taken at the beginning of all shifts, and McMahon said they will be logging these temperatures each and every shift. Staff will also be wearing face masks and customers will be expected to wear masks when not seated at their tables. A mask will be required when customers first arrive or when they are headed to use the restrooms. Additionally, there will be hand sanitizer stations available as well as a new point of sales system. This system will allow customers to pay directly on a tablet with their credit card so that staff will not need to take cards or hand over receipts and pens to people.

“We’ll have cleaning staff on hand at all times,” McMahon said.

Customers will also have to call ahead and make reservations before arriving so that they are not standing around, not distancing themselves while waiting for a table.

Moreover, the city’s other charitable gaming facility, The River Casino & Sports Bar, is going to hold off on reopening. President and General Manager Jim Rafferty said the casino remained open for takeout for a week until they closed on March 16, which was successful for a couple days before falling off dramatically. The casino stopped offering that option and will not resume offering takeout food service come May 18.

“We’re not going to do takeout,” Rafferty said. “We’re going to wait until we can open, and even though we’ll probably open with restrictions, we’ll open when we can open the whole thing, the whole package.”

City Room Cafe is also holding off on reopening for now. The breakfast and lunch style restaurant has a limited capacity for outdoor dining as it is, according to owner Terry Wade, who said she only has three outdoor tables available. Another factor when making this decision to refrain from opening is that the dining option is weather dependent.

Wade’s plan for now is to wait and see how other openings go, and then hear what the governor next proposes regarding indoor dining and what will be allowed. However, being a smaller establishment, it may be difficult to do so with physical distancing. Currently, the cafe is not offering takeout or delivery service, although she is considering the reopening open up for takeout, gearing more towards lunch and family-style meals.

Ultimately, she would love to see full-service dining open before July 1, and she said she’ll wait, but for now she is keeping a close eye on everything.

“If I have to think of something in the interim I will,” Wade said. “I’m trying to hold off, but I can only go so far until I have to make a decision.”

Additionally, Wade also questions going to a restaurant where the wait staff is greeting customers with face masks, gloves, sanitizing their hands frequently and having to throw away menus.

“I think at first people are looking to get out of their homes, but I don’t think that’s the experience they’re looking for,” Wade said.

The Red Arrow Diner on the other hand will be offering the outdoor experience with picnic tables spaced apart to abide by social distancing. Front-of-house server at the Londonderry location Sherilyn Milne said a Nashua location recently opened and that takeout is now being offered. Other locations include Londonderry, Manchester and Concord. When it comes time to open for outdoor dining, Milne said she does not believe the Manchester site will be doing so but was not certain. In any event, the Londonderry location will feature 13 picnic tables. Milne believes Concord will have 20 and that Nashua will have 24.

“I think we just need to all follow the recommended guidelines,” Milne said.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

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