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Date: 5/5/2021
LONGMEADOW/EAST LONGMEADOW – The summer restaurant season is beginning to swing into gear and after more than a year of quarantine, diners are ready to eat out once more.
“We’re insanely busy,” said Meg Godfrey, a manager at Center Square Grill in East Longmeadow. She said people come in for the fresh ingredients and handcrafted drinks from the bar.
Godfrey explained that the family-run restaurant takes all necessary precautions with plexiglass barriers, distanced tables, cleaning between seatings, and masks for all employees and for guests when not seated.
Godfrey said that the outdoor seating options have been “very popular.” In addition to the permanent patio, Center Square Grill has tables along the sidewalk enclosed in clear plastic “greenhouses.” The metal-framed enclosures are ventilated and contain an outdoor heater for cold-weather dining. Now that the weather is turning warmer, though, she said the restaurant will be replacing the greenhouses with patio tables at the beginning of May.
Nicole Kretschmar, a manager at Posto, an Italian restaurant at the Longmeadow Shops said, “We’ve basically been going the same thing we did last year, you know, with distancing and masks and cleaning.” In addition to the spaced-out tables inside, there is an on-site patio and a tent set-up in front of the restaurant, which will seat up to 68 people.
“We obviously take everyone’s health seriously,” she said.
Kretschmar said that people have been coming back to eat at the restaurant for the past three months. “We haven’t had any trouble with people coming in to dine.”
At Max Burger, also located at the Longmeadow Shops, business is “certainly not where it was before,” said Manager Craig “Suny” Sundquist, but it has increased substantially from when on-site dining was first reopened.
“Every week, we’re getting a little better,” he said. “I think your reputation has to be on point and everything will follow along.”
Sundquist said that guest perceptions of seeing people cleaning have helped increase willingness to eat in the restaurant again. “I feel like people are a little more comfortable as vaccines increase,” he said.
Max Burger has an on-site patio for diners who would prefer to eat outside and are putting a up a tent restaurant for more seating options. Before the tent goes up, however, Sundquist said the restaurant has to hire more people to staff the extra area.
“I think every restaurant is trying to hire new staff,” he said.
Sundquist said that Max Burger isn’t offering live music or other promotions meant to bring people in, but that’s because Longmeadow residents are already “very loyal.”