Manager Jamie Olivas marks tables and seating for removal from the dining area at Nanny Goat's Cafe and Feed Bin Tuesday, December 22, 2020, to meet a state-mandated seating reduction. (Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo)

Longview businesses spent Tuesday afternoon preparing to reduce their customer capacity in response to new COVID-19 restrictions that go into effect today.

At Nanny Goats Cafe and Feed Bin in Longview, General Manager Jamie Olivas physically removed tables from the restaurant to reduce capacity to 50%. Across town at Cafe Barron’s, General Manager Kamma Colvin marked tables in the dining room as “closed” Tuesday and tied ribbon around every other chair at the bar to denote seat closures.

“We’re spacing out our tables. We’re closing off four tables in our main dining room for extra spacing so that we can accommodate the tables that we do have. We’re tying off every other seat at the bar,” Colvin said. “We still have our patio, but we just seat every other table. … And, of course, we’re not having any big groups in our private rooms. Our private rooms are only serving groups of up 10 people.”

Cafe Barrons and Nanny Goats are among dozens of restaurants, small businesses and bars making changes in light of tightened business restrictions caused by a spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Longview/Tyler region.

Gregg County is among 19 counties across East Texas facing the reinstated restrictions from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office that came after the region experienced seven consecutive day in which COVID-19 related hospitalizations accounted for more than 15% of total hospital capacity.

According to the governor’s mandate, Gregg County bars in which alcohol accounts for 51% of total sales must close, and businesses must drop from 75% capacity to 50% capacity. That includes restaurants, retail shops, gyms and other indoor facilities. There continue to be no restrictions for certain facilities such as schools, child care services and churches, according to the governor’s orders.

Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt announced Monday that businesses had until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to make accommodations.

Longview Environmental Services Manager Leisha Kidd-Brooks said Tuesday her office was working to notify businesses that hold a license with her of the changes that take effect today.

“We’re making a lot of calls,” she said. “I’m in constant contact with TABC to help them differentiate between bars and the ones that have converted to selling food to meet the 51% standard.”

Kidd-Brooks said several Longview establishments have worked to make changes and have begun selling food so that alcohol sales will account for less than 51% of their total sales so that they can stay open. Such bars include Outlaw’s, J’s Place and OilWell Club.

Outlaws owner Melissa Lynn Kelly could not be reached for comment Tuesday; however, the bar’s Facebook page notes a new food menu that includes tacos, nachos, chicken sandwiches, Frito pies, chili cheese hot dogs and a slew of other items. The OilWell Club’s Facebook page also reflected that it is serving what it described as “concession style food.”

At Nanny Goats, Olivas said the restaurant is eliminating its outdoor seating because of the cold weather and also reducing its capacity indoors. Nanny Goats and Cafe Barrons staff said they are continuing to sanitize regularly for customers’ safety.

Colvin said Cafe Barron’s has experienced a decrease in sales this year primarily due to a decline in its private events. Typically at this time of year, the restaurant hosts many holiday parties. Colvin said the private room use is about 25% of where it typically is this time of year. However, despite that, she said Barron’s loyal customers have helped keep the restaurant in business.

Olivas said Nanny Goats’ loyal fan base also is to thank for the restaurant’s success this year.

“Our curbside and to-go have been really popular, and our casseroles that people can take home have also done really well,” Olivas said. “We really stayed afloat because of our customers and because we found other ways to get our product out, like with our curbside service.”