TYLER, Texas — The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many businesses to change the way serve their customers or close their doors altogether. Many restaurants in East Texas are doing their best to offer their services without customers having to venture inside the building.
Nate Rhyne and Aaron Price of the East Texas Brewing Company say due to recommendations from the CDC, they will be shifting their business model temporarily to a drive-thru pickup.
“When we go to drive thru, we're actually going to lock the door starting tomorrow and have our signs up saying ‘Hey, you can call ahead for order pick up and we'll bring it out to you or we have to drive through going around the building,’” Rhyne explained. “We're gonna have them enter off of Broadway in front of the building and drive around and they want actually have two lanes, one that we're going to hope is only for people wanting to pick up beer to go, that one that wants food to go. And then we'll just blow them back out behind the building on the north College Street.”
Price says the decision was made in the interest of public health, regardless of the diminished business they have seen due to social distancing.
“Well, we want to do what's right for the community," Price said. "At the end of the day, you know, we're a struggling small business, just like every other struggling small business out there. But at the end of the day, you know, we got to stop this."
While the brewery tries to do their part to help the community, Governor Abbott said Wednesday he has waived certain regulations prohibiting the delivery of alcoholic beverages in Texas in order to allow Texans to fully support local businesses like ETX Brewing Company during this time.