Fort Worth's Frezko Taco Spot Shuts Down Dining Room Voluntarily As COVID-19 Cases Spike
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - As COVID-19 hospitalizations near the threshold that would trigger automatic capacity limits again for businesses, a Fort Worth business owner decided this week not to wait for the order.
Eliazar Salinas pulled the tables and chairs out of Frezko Taco Spot, his small restaurant on North Tarrant Parkway near I-35W.
Hand-written signs on the door alert customers that the business has gone back to takeout only with virus case numbers rising.
"It hurts us," he said Friday. "But I really do want my staff to be safe. I really do want customers to be safe."
This is the third time Salinas has imposed his own limits on dining-in.
He said he did it early in March, as he heard from family and friends about the situation on the East coast.
He stopped dine-in again when cases spiked in North Texas in July.
Loyal customers kept his Fort Worth store busy though.
He added online ordering, and no-contact payment systems in the drive-through line.
The support was enough to allow him to start building out a new location in The Colony, where a drive-through window was a priority.
Salinas was quick to acknowledge that a pre-emptive limit would be difficult for many small business owners.
However, he believes there are some larger businesses, including bars that have now become restaurants to stay open, that have the ability to scale back.
"I think if you're trying to do it for your community, if you're really doing it for your neighbor, your customers, if you can actually withstand this, I think you should scale back a little bit," he said. "But once again, it's not for everybody."
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