THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Sunny weekend weather brings diners back to local restaurants
:22NS2C.ET – After being largely homebound during the state’s shutdown over the C29ID- pandemic, Meta Brewer and Steve Bouley of :oonsocket were ready to go out )riday evening and made their way to outdoor cafp at Christopher’s .itchen Bar at South Main Street.
The couple sat at one of the do]en tables set up in the city’s Market Square parking lot across the street from Christopher’s after making a reservation.
³:e like it a lot. :e haven’t been out yet so this was nice,´ Brewer said.
Bouley termed the e[perience ³phenomenal´ while describing it as the perfect remedy to the shutdown.
³They have great service and the food is outstanding too,´ Bouley said.
+e ordered chicken skewers and Brewer a salmon dinner.
The outdoor dining option
was offered in the same parking area that Ye Olde English Fish & Chips is using for a table set-up for its customers pick-up take-out meals.
River Falls Restaurant at the other side of the parking lot was also offering take out and dining on its outdoor pavilion alongside the Blackstone River.
Robert Ferrante and Jen Cardosa of Lincoln were found at a Ye Olde English table having fish & chips with Ferrante’s brother David and Shirley Babcock, also of Lincoln.
“We grew up in Woonsocket on Hamlet Avenue in the 1960s and just wanted to get out for a good meal,” Robert Ferrante said.
To help customers visit the Market Square dining spot, the Woonsocket Police
Department assigned a traffic officer to South Main Street crosswalk to direct traffic through the area and allow people to cross the road.
George and Ellie Bregianos were serving as hosts for outdoor dining for Christopher’s Kitchen & Bar and noted business was steady on Friday.
“This is the second weekend and it is going good,” Bregianos noted.
Christopher’s, operated by the Petropulos family, also put together a takeout operation to serve its customers.
The new outdoor location was put together with the help of Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt and the city as a way to help Market Square continue as a Main Street business focal point.
“It was good because the people got to come out and enjoy a nice meal and the beautiful weather in Market Square,” Bregianos said.
The operation requires a lot of preparation and planning but Bregianos said it was worth it to serve the business’ customers.
“We want to do whatever we can for the customers,” Bregianos said.
“And that’s what they are saying to us, ‘it’s a nice night out and it’s good the country is opening again,” he added.
Meeting the requirements for the outdoor operations wasn’t all that difficult, Bregianos said.
There was plenty of room to set up the tables at least 8 feet apart and everything is sanitized repeatedly during the dining operation.
“Every waiter has a bottle of sanitizing spray and once the party leaves, we spray everything down,” he said.
All of the Christopher’s employees wear masks at all times and customers are asked to wear them as well until they are seated at their dining tables, he noted.
Employees also get a temperature check before they start their shift as an added
precaution, he said.
“We will do whatever it takes,” Bregianos said.
Next week, Christopher’s is looking to take another step forward, indoor dining, under Gov. Gina Raimondo’s reopening plan.
“We’re going to be at 50 percent capacity on June 1 and we are spreading out the tables and all the same protocols, masks and sanitizing will be place,” he said.
As he enjoyed the outdoor set-up at Christopher’s with his wife, Kelly, City Public Safety Director Eugene Jalette said he was glad to see local residents were support their local business during the crisis.
“We actually tried a couple of other places and the reservations were full,” he said.
“We were happy to get a seat here and the food was great,” he added.
Jalette had steak tips and would recommended them.
The couple had also tried the local outdoor dining last weekend, and Kelly said she also enjoyed the set-up outside Kay’s on Cass Avenue.
“This is awesome, too,” she said of being out at Market Square this week.