TAMPA, Fla. — It’s no secret restaurants have been hit hard from coronavirus. As Florida reopens, we continue to see more restaurants slowly start to open at 50 percent. That includes Splitsville that reopened on Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Sparkman Wharf.
“We are so excited to be back and the whole team is ready to go,” Celebrity Chef Art Smith owner of Splitsville said.
Splitsville is a family-friendly restaurant where you can go bowling, play games like ping pong and eat some delicious Southern cooking. “We are famous for these hot honey biscuits with chicken, they’ll just drive you crazy,” Smith said.
Smith says when you go to their reopened restaurant you should know his staff is following the cleaning and social distancing rules in place and encourages everyone to wear masks to make others feel comfortable.
Smith also owns the restaurant Homecomin’ at Disney Springs but he isn’t reopening that restaurant until Phase 2 of reopening Florida happens. He says they are working on adding a shaded outdoor area there that will really help with social distancing and add to the dining experience.
“The biggest challenge of all has been the lack of business and the emotional strain. It’s been hard when you work so hard for so many years and then you see so many things close. You just think ‘OK, what’s next?’” Smith said. His best advice for restaurants that are struggling is to have multiple revenue streams.
“You have to have other ways to get to people. One of the things that’s hot now is delivery. It’s taking that one thing you make that’s delicious and still being able to get it out to the people. Maybe you have to FedEx it, but delivery is the biggest business right now,” Smith said. He also recommends reopening simply at first. “What this has taught us is how we can do a lot with a lot less. We scaled down our menu tonight because we want to ease into it,” Smith said, “We can’t do everything but we have enough on here to make you happy.”
Happy and entertained during a time when so many are looking for a small taste of normal again.
“It’s really important that as family and as people we come back together to reengage and do something we all love, which is eating at restaurants and enjoying our loved ones. We can do all of that and still be safe,” Smith said.
Many Tampa Bay area cities like Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Sarasota are allowing restaurants to expand outdoor dining. That will help them increase the amount of people they can serve while keeping people at a safe distance.
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