SPRINGFIELD, Mo – On Tuesday, Mayor Ken McClure announced bars, taverns, or food establishments offering drinking or dining-in options as well as several other businesses had to prohibit public gatherings of 10 or more people.

Springfield mayor changes public gathering limit from 50 to 10

That means restaurants in the Springfield area have moved to carry out, curbside pick up, and delivery. Some restaurants are used to this, but for restaurants that focus on dine-in experiences, it has been a struggle to shift.

Restaurants like Mudhouse, Bambinos, and The Big Slice are all shifting gears to serve guests without coming into their restaurants.

Cassie Leuschen, Manager at The Big Slice, says on a regular business day they are about 75% dine-in. Leuschen says she thought the new regulations would hinder their sales, but with online orders, they are staying swamped.

Jillian Lambeth, a waitress at Bambinos near Missouri State, generally says around lunchtime the restaurant is full, but as of lunchtime Wednesday afternoon, they only made ten orders.

Jonathan Stratman, Manager at Mudhouse, says the coffee shop environment has changed from having cool lights and light chatter to no cool lights and only chatter form employees and blenders.

Leuschen says her first concern as a manager was how she was going to pay her staff.

“If we were going to be able to accommodate our staff because everybody has bills and if we don’t have dine-in, are we going to need that many people and are they going to be able to cover their bills,” she says.

Lambeth says dine-in servers heavily rely on tips, and having to do solely carry out is vastly different.

“It’s not the same, it’s absolutely not the same, and I am infuriated. We’re working on making sure that everybody gets some hours, everybody gets some shifts. It’s not perfect, and it’s not going to be enough for anyone, but we are really trying to make sure that everyone gets something,” says Lambeth.

She says the owners of the Bambinos are making sure staff are not worried about pay by increasing their paychecks. She says that generally, during a shift, there are 12 people, and on Wednesday, they had four to five people scheduled.

For Mudhouse, they created a new website for patrons to order at, or you can order on the phone. He says throughout this odd transitional time, the citizens have shown their support.

“We’ve had a lot of our regulars show up, of course, none of them can come inside, but like we’re doing our best. So we’re just trying to kind of overnight change the structure of how we conduct business,” says Stratman.

Lambeth says she wishes government leaders had a relief plan in place before putting these regulations on restaurants.