TYLER, Texas — Memorial Day Weekend is traditionally the beginning of summer. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic still at the forefront of many Americans' minds, what the summer of 2020 will look like is still to be determined.
However, business owners say it was good to have customers back.
"It had been nine weeks since we had been open. So it felt good. It felt right. It felt like home just to kind of get back into that rhythm of pouring beers instead of selling it to go," Jared Chacom of True Vine Brewery said.
Although the indoor tasting room was closed, Chacom says seeing the employees serve beer to patrons was a relief.
"I think we were all just glad to get back on our feet and say, 'Okay, this is what we do best.' And man, it feels it feels good to be back," Chacom said.
Marnelle Durrett of Kipersol Winery says she was also happy to see crowds back enjoying their popular wine, even with the limitations set by the state.
"We didn't have masses of crowds that came out, but we had probably just the right sized crowd," Durrett said. "We wanted to just take a slow start to things and get our processes and practices right. So I think we had just the right amount of people I'd say."
The winery opened its doors Friday and made some changes to ensure social distancing guidelines were met.
"We literally took our new event center that will hold 200 guests, [...] we've converted that to our new tasting room," Durrett said. "So a huge measure we've taken is where we typically would fit 30 guests in our old tasting room, and then and then another 30 guests on the patio. We can now fit 60 guests at 25% capacity of the entire building."
According to Chacom, True Vine's downtown location remains closed due to the small size and limitations.
"It's just not worth it," Chacom said.