TUCSON, ARIZ. - After trying to get by on take-out only, Arizona restaurants are preparing to welcome dine-in customers again starting on Monday. But that means a busy time getting the buildings ready---and creating an atmosphere where customers will feel safe.
We’ve talked about how the virus has forced us to adapt and adjust again and again. That’s true of the Trident Grilland other restaurants around town as they get ready to re-open.
On Friday morning Robert Zuniga of Germ Evictors was spraying disinfectant all around the Trident Grill near Craycroft and Broadway. He says the chemicals are food safe bacteria and virus killers and that the process applies an electrostatic charge that makes the treatment last up to three months.
He says, “As the disinfecting goes through the gun that adds an electrical charge to the disinfectant. And as that disinfecting comes near a surface, it is attracted to it like a magnet.”
Zuniga says the attraction of a thorough disinfecting has a lot of restaurants calling him to help them create the sort of safe atmosphere important to bring customers back.
Andrew Knight manages the Trident on Craycroft.
“We have to show that we can step up to the plate, that we can knock it out of the park and that we can get Arizona back to being normal for restaurant experiences.”
That means besides disinfectant treatment, giving workers temperature checks, keeping them in masks and gloves and keeping plenty of sanitizer available.
Knight says customers should understand tables will be more spread out and they should avoid packing in close at the bar ---- and while some restaurants have decided to wait longer to re-open, Trident doesn’t want to delay proving recovery can be safe.
Knight says, “We're still the same people that we were when you came in the first time before all of this started. We're still those people who are trying to do our best to make sure that you enjoy yourself here at Trident.”
