RALEIGH, N.C. – As restaurants begin to return to normal, the dining experience will change.

What You Need To Know


  • Restaurants reopen for dine-in

  • Safety top of mind

  • Morgan Street Food Hall taking steps like using UV light, copper foil on door handles

At Morgan Street Food Hall, some of the changes are obvious.

"All employees wearing cloth face masks, barrier guards for everybody, continuous sanitation, more so than ever," says Greg Nelson, owner of Iyla's Southern Kitchen.

Other precautions are happening behind the scenes. The owner of Makus Empanadas is having his employees take online courses on ServSafe.  It's a food safety training program administered by the National Restaurant Association.

The property owner recently installed about a dozen ultra-violet lights in the HVAC system to kill pathogens in the air before people may breathe then in.  

"As the air flows back into the return, it sterilizes. Any air moving around the building is being sanitized, which is absolutely huge," says Niall Hanley, the owner of Hibernian Hospitality.

It's similar to the technology New York City is using to zap germs on subways and buses.

The food hall has also wrapped door handles in copper foil. Studies have shown COVID-19 can survive up to two to three days on plastic and steel, but only about four hours on copper foil.

Toe pulls have been installed for people to open bathroom doors with their feet instead of their hands.

Hanley is also planning to get a hydrogen peroxide fogger. Even with the added safeguards, he understands not everyone will have the confidence to return.

"I think 50 percent of people will come out, 50 percent won't. All we can do is try to stay on top of it, manage crowds the best we can," Hanley said.