LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky restaurants reopening to in-person diners on May 22 will have a lot more constraints than limiting themselves to 33% indoor capacity.
Gov. Andy Beshear's office on Wednesday published dozens of rules and suggestions for restaurants that hope to resume operations next week.
Among other requirements, operators are supposed to ensure that only customers who live together share a table.
"Restaurants should limit party size to ten people or fewer. Persons not living within the same household should not be permitted to sit at the same table," one rule states.
Restaurants should use "disposable" menus, napkins, table cloths, utensils and condiments and should stop using tablecloths and cloth napkins, according to the "Healthy at Work" guidance.
How strictly the guidelines will be enforced is an open question. In most cases, the rules are to be followed "to the greatest extent practicable."
Stacy Roof, president of the Kentucky Restaurant Association, said the industry has some questions and concerns about the rules but "by and large they're good."
"I think our restaurants are so desperate to get people in their dining rooms, they will bend over backwards to comply," she said.
Roof questioned the need for single-use utensils, saying restaurants already sanitize their dishware. And she said there could be a shortage if every restaurant is trying to stock up on plastic items at the same time.
"There is a lot of waste involved in single-use anything," she said.
She also questioned the prohibition on table cloths and linens, which she said are just as clean as table surfaces.
Roof said she "(doesn't) know how reasonable" it is for operators to ensure that people do not a share a table with people who aren't in their households.
"Most people at this point in time know the only people they are supposed to be around on a regular basis are the peope they have been with the last few months," she said.
