43.39% of restaurant owners choosing to reopen dine-in service May 1, Texas Restaurant Association survey shows

Texas restaurants have been given permission by Gov. Greg Abbott to reopen dining rooms with a 25% capacity cap in place beginning May 1.

While restaurants have the option to reopen to dine-in customers, according to a survey by the Texas Restaurant Association, 56.61% of restaurants are choosing not to reopen or are unsure if they will do so over the next week.

The survey, which gathered input from 401 Texas restaurant owners and operators, was conducted April 28, the day after Abbott announced the orders that allowed dining rooms to reopen.

According to the survey, 174 owners said they would reopen May 1, while 190 said they would not. 37 were undecided about opening under the new orders and guidelines for Texas retail.

Abbott's orders also outlined a timeline that could allow restaurants to expand dine-in services to 50% capacity by May 18. Of those 227 owners who said they were not currently planning to open dining rooms this weekend, 80, or 35.2% said they would open once the capacity limit was expanded to 50%, while 33, or 14.5%, would not. 99 were still unsure.

Of those surveyed by the Texas Restaurant Association, 204 were owners or operators of multiple restaurants. About 58.3% of those owners were planning to open all of their locations to dine-in May 1, while 23.5% said they would only open a portion of the establishments they operated. About 18.1% said they were not planning to open any of their restaurants to dine-in May 1.