LUNA PIER, Mich. — Restaurant owners in Michigan hope the easing of COVID-19 restrictions will boost business.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a couple of weeks ago that starting Tuesday, June 1, restaurants can serve more customers.
Kelly Allen opened Luna Pure Nutrition, a nutritional shake and healthy tea shop in Luna Pier, during the COVID-19 pandemic in December.
"It was kind of hard at first," said Allen. "But I had a lot of people who would call and we'd do curbside service. Whatever they needed to do to get them to their shakes and breakfasts, we would do that."
Allen's excited restrictions are being eased. Up from 25%, restaurants can now open indoor dining to 50% capacity. For Allen that's 16 customers which means opportunity to try new things.
"I'm gonna have a thing called Sip and Sample for people who don't know about the service yet," she said. "Getting to know more people in the community and getting out and doing drop-offs for shakes and businesses and stuff like that, that we couldn't do before."
Tables will be able to seat more than six people and won't have to be six feet apart. The 11 p.m. curfew will also be lifted, letting bars stay open three hours longer.
The state mask order will expire on July 1, however businesses may still implement their own mask order.
"I will leave it up to the customer if they want to put their mask on. If they want us to wear a mask, we're more than happy to do that. I want to make everybody feel comfortable with getting what they need," Allen said.
All capacity limits will end on July 1.