San Antonio – With vaccinations on the rise and the number of COVID-19 cases low, area restaurants are preparing for a Mother’s Day rush.
“The guest counts that we have scheduled for reservations is the most we’ve ever had in the history of our company,” said chef and restauranteur Jason Dady, who called the holiday traditionally “the busiest day of the year for restaurants.”
Dady, who owns several area restaurants through the Jason Dady Restaurant Group, said he thinks “COVID fatigue” and people feeling safer are behind the turnout.
Speaking with KSAT at his latest restaurant, Jardin, at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, Dady said the inside wasn’t opened up to completely full capacity yet.
“If anything, it’s just to make people feel more safe when they’re inside already,” Dady said.
Dawn Ann Larios, the executive director of the Texas Restaurant Association West Region, which includes San Antonio, said many restaurants are still operating at a reduced capacity and/or dealing with staffing shortfalls.
At The Good Kind in Southtown, operations director Scott Jacobsen acknowledged they’ve had problems getting fully staffed. However, he didn’t expect it to be an issue on Sunday.
“We’re staffed up as best as we can be. And, you know, we just ask people to just realize that we have real food coming out of the kitchen, and we don’t have microwaves back there and everything is real. And it takes a little bit of time, and just be patient with them,” Jacobsen said.