Downtown bars and restaurants prepare for another busy graduation weekend, but this time with no health order restrictions
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Heidelberg and On the Rocks are just two of the downtown businesses that are preparing for an increased number of people to be downtown this weekend.
Matt McGee, owner of On the Rocks bar said, "The last few nights have been busy, whether that is due to the health order being lifted or graduation weekend is still up in the air."
Manager of The Heidelberg, Richard Walls said they are completely booked up with reservations for Saturday night and have a few openings for Friday. He said with graduations being spread out more it has allowed for traffic flow to go smoother in restaurants.
There are 19 different Mizzou graduation ceremonies from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening. A spokesman for the university said each event will have around 300 graduates in attendance.
Each graduate also has six guest tickets for the ceremonies which means that 2,100 people could be attending each ceremony and around 40,000 for all of them combined.
Nickie Davis with the district downtown attributes the large increase in business to graduation weekend, the health order being lifted, and temperatures starting to rise.
Davis said each business has different restrictions on mask-wearing that they are still asking the public to abide by. She said as of the last few days there haven't been any large issues with customers not wearing masks in the businesses, but they are expecting that to be a "typical graduation weekend."
A spokesperson for McNally's Irish Pub said they are preparing for what this weekend of graduations could bring. They have been busier the past week than they have been previously and have seen people more excited to be able to sit at the bar with the restrictions lifted.
Davis said staffing issues are still present for many businesses, but she said, "Covid has shown us that our local businesses always find a way."
"We are still on a pretty short staff and are mentally preparing ourselves to be tired on Sunday," said McGee. Walls agrees by saying they are always concerned with staffing but they have had the opportunity to hire some new people on recently.
The health order in Columbia expired Wednesday. McGee said they will not be requiring masks for customers or staff. Walls said a lot of his staff has been fully vaccinated. He said as long as they have been vaccinated they are not required to wear masks. According to walls, they still have some social distancing on tables but are also having optional masks for customers.
