Delaware County Restaurant Debuts New Location As Three-Week Ban On Indoor Dining Lifted In Pennsylvania
DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- Though restaurants in Philadelphia will have to wait until Jan. 15 to allow diners back inside, restaurants in the Pennsylvania suburbs were permitted to resume indoor dining Monday.
For Brick and Brew in Havertown, it was a new beginning in more ways than one. The gastropub debuted its brand-new Eagle Road location, as Gov. Tom Wolf lifted his three-week indoor dining ban.
"We did plan on moving prior to the pandemic, and we were beginning, we were working on construction and then the pandemic hit and then everything got shut down," said restaurant manager Kelsey Jackson.
It was risky going forward with the extensive, gut-rehab of the building that once housed a bank. But Jackson said the community has been very supportive through ordering takeout and dining outdoors in anticipation of the restaurant's move from Darby Road to this much larger space.
"We've had the phones ringing off the hook as you can hear now, making reservations, people have been coming in just for little tours of the restaurant," Jackson said. "The community has been very excited and has waited a long time."
Gov. Wolf's temporary ban starting Dec. 12, came following a post-Thanksgiving surge in COVID-19 cases.
Restaurants must go through a self-certification process in order to operate at 50% capacity indoors, otherwise, they will be limited to 25% capacity.
"This does not mean that we're out of the woods, not by any means," Wolf said Wednesday. "We still have significant mitigation efforts in place."
Pre-closure precautions still apply, from no bar seating to the spacing out of tables to at least six-feet apart or plastic dividers between them, and masks required when people move through the restaurant.
"I wanted to be the first one here," said longtime patron Charles Gallagher.
The beautiful new space doesn't hurt, but Gallagher said the staff brought him back.
"It's very important. Why wouldn't you support people that you know and you care about?" he said.
Brick and Brew also has two other locations in the Philadelphia suburbs, in Media and in Malvern. All three locations are open for indoor dining.
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