Over the weekend Tallahassee residents participated in Rally for Tally, a campaign to support curbside pickup at local restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants have been one of the harder hit industries. Local restaurant owner Eddie Agramonte spoke about how business is going.
Agramonte is the owner of Gordos Cuban Cuisine, a restaurant that’s been in Tallahassee since 1988. He says Saturday’s Rally for Tally was successful.
“The support from the community was absolutely fantastic," Agramonte said.
He says when DeSantis limited restaurants to 50 percent capacity the idea to bring attention to curbside delivery blossomed.
"When we created [Rally for Tally] it was about 50% capacity and so we thought to do a little bit more social distancing let’s do this curbside stuff," Agramonte said.
Last Friday Desantis changed the rules, shutting down the dine-in option completely. Agramonte says although takeout business has been good the new limitations are a huge strain on a business.
"Right now this isn’t a time where personally as a restaurant owner I'm making money, I'm not making money now. But it’s not about me," Agramonte said. "This is about keeping people healthy and keeping people fed and keeping employees working."
Agramonte says if the current order put in place by Desantis last long enough he could be forced to close.
"In the foreseeable future to be able to say I can run like this for four months, no I don’t think I can," Agramonte said.
Gordos and other dine-in restaurants around Tallahassee are doing takeout and pickup. To figure out if a restaurant is participating visit the Office of Economic Vitality website, they have a map that shows which restaurants are open for takeout.
