DENVER (KDVR) — Most of the Denver metro area shifted to Level Yellow on Saturday as Colorado institutes the new COVID-19 dial.
Starting at 9 a.m., Snooze A.M. Eatery on Colorado Boulevard got the green light to welcome 50 customers inside their dining room at a time.
“It felt like there was just a big weight lifted off of our shoulders being able to bring in guests to our dining room, letting them get to feel the vibes, get to see the energy of this staff, get to see how we are safely serving food it’s just perfect,” head chef Richard Leal said.
The new capacity limits allow Snooze to fill 20 more seats making a big difference considering sales dropped 60% when the brunch spot could only serve customers through take-out orders.
“The most detrimental thing in a restaurant is an empty seat, so getting to fill as much of those as possible, especially with how busy we are every day, it’s just perfect,” Leal said. “The guest is the true north. If we don’t take care of the guest, the guest won’t take care of the restaurant.”
Snooze tells FOX31 they plan on giving more hours to servers with this shift. On Feb. 16, they are having a Pancake Day fundraiser where 100% of pancake sales will go towards feeding hungry children. The restaurant pre-pledged to donate $20,000 to No Kid Hungry.
At Fitwall in the Highlands, 50% capacity means group fitness class sizes are limited to nine people.
“We used to have classes of 18 but because the pandemic and keeping six feet space we have classes of 9,” head coach Drew Priolo said. “If we did have more than that I mean we couldn’t fit it in this space.”
The gym installed partitions to socially distance customers during their workouts among a number of other safety and sanitization measures.
Pirolo says fewer people and more space is working for them at 50% capacity because of the dedicated customers they have.
“Our wait list is usually two weeks in advance, we typically have nine people set up on it,” he said, adding “The people who did stay with us did because, over quarantine, we set up a bunch of free classes over social media.”