Governor DeWine announced on Wednesday that he would change the curfew to start at 11 P.M. rather than 10 P.M., and will go into effect Thursday night. Businesses in the area are deciding whether to change their hours along with the curfew.
After COVID-19 hospitalizations stayed under 3,500 for over a week straight, DeWine decided that it was time to loosen the curfew on the state and extend it an hour. Instead of restaurants and businesses having to close their doors and make sure customers are out by 10 P.M., they now have until 11 P.M. to do it.
While the new curfew does offer some wiggle room for closing at night, some restaurants are unsure if they want to make the move and extend their official hours of operation.
Frank Guagenti, the owner of Milano Cafe says, “It is hard to make some business decisions and it’s hard to do staffing, it’s hard to know what to expect.”
Guagenti isn’t too quick to make any permanent decisions about the restaurant. Orders from the governor have changed daily at times, and like other business owners, he’s worried about the curfew going back to 10 P.M.
“I’m going to wait and see how long 11 o’clock sticks around, hopefully, it will go to 12 o’clock soon then I’ll make my changes for sure,” says Guagenti. “As of now, we’re just going to play it by ear and see, because like I said, it could be a week from now we could be back at 10 o’clock.”
Other restaurants are welcoming the curfew extension with new hours. John Heaphy, the owner of Beer Barrel and Happy Daz, told Your News Now via text that he’s excited to have his restaurants open until 11 P.M. starting this weekend. He says his concerns would be if they keep extending the hours. He wonders if people would still be willing to venture out late-night, and the labor costs that would be involved with that.
