It was all smiles across the county over the weekend as restaurant and brewery regulars raised glasses to cheer the green phase of Gov. Tom Wolf's return to operations, following COVID-19 shutdowns.

“We've been waiting for this for a long time,” Mars resident Kevin Lynch said, seated with friends at Stick City Brewery in Mars on Saturday afternoon

It was the first time they'd been together since the last night before the closure in mid-March, when they toasted to owner Nick Salkeld through the security camera feed. Salkeld was on his honeymoon in New Zealand and visiting with hops growers at the time.

“These guys are like family, and we missed that a lot,” Lynch's friend and Sarver resident Bill Bowser said.

Across the county restaurants and bars opened Friday with excitement, tempered by cautious optimism moving forward.

“It was amazing,” Salkeld said of reopening seating space at the brewery. “You could see the sense of relief and enjoyment on people's faces.”

With restrictions, the brewery is keeping the bar closed and has added appropriate space between tables.

It was a similar reaction at Spello in Adams Township, according to head chef Justin Melnick.

“We had a lot of happy people,” he said, describing being fully booked Friday night and headed toward the same Saturday.

While Stick City was able to get by on beer sales during the pandemic, for Spello the COVID-19 shutdown was especially trying. They had been open for just four weeks prior to shutting down.

“We're essentially opening a brand new restaurant twice this year,” Melnick said.

But he was optimistic. With a federal loan, the high-end Italian restaurant was able to retain most of its staff and even is hiring now that it reopened.

With expanded outdoor seating. Melnick said he is able to operate at around 70 percent of the normal indoor capacity prior to the coronavirus.

Overall, the restaurant is continuing to operate at 50 percent occupancy — the state's current guideline under the Wolf administration.

Though breweries like Stick City and Butler Brew Works were able to survive without loans, in large-part due to carryout beer sales, for restaurants like Spello it was more of a challenge.

“You're not thinking high-end Italian restaurant as takeout,” operations manager Colin Smith said.

Describing staffing during the pandemic, Melnick added that describing it as a “skeleton crew would be an understatement.”

Evolving, innovating in shutdown

With state guidelines for reopening dictating a 50 percent dine-in occupancy, challenges and uncertainty are likely to continue for the immediate future of area restaurants.

“We're cautiously optimistic,” said Butler Brew Works co-owner Nick Fazzoni. “To open at 50 percent capacity is really difficult. There's still a lot of questions.”

Heading into the shutdown made innovation a priority for the Main Street brewery to survive.

“We had to shift our business model overnight,” he said, describing changes they discussed prior to COVID which became a necessity in the shutdown. “It caused us to be creative.”

Servers became delivery drivers, and the brewery instituted online ordering almost immediately, according to Fazzoni. They now also have beer delivery throughout the county.

Stick City owner Nick Salkeld also described shifting focus. While the Mars brewery doesn't do its own food — it invites food carts to their outdoor space — he said they increased focus on canning their beer instead of selling kegs.

Salkeld said the decision led to them selling roughly the same volume of beer as when they were open, but not at the same profit margin.

He credited the community for getting them through the shutdown.

“Everyone supported us so well,” he said. “People were tipping well (at pick-up). It's amazing to see that.”

With curbside sales, Salkeld said they didn't need to rely on federal loans through the shutdown.

“We chose not to have it. That's for the businesses that couldn't do anything,” he said.

Similarly, Fazzoni said Butler Brew Works also didn't opt for a loan.

And with the changes to its business model, he hopes they can start to recover lost revenue.

The brewery will be continuing online ordering and delivery moving forward. It also is looking into expanding outdoor seating.

“We're hoping to come out better than we went in,” Fazzoni said.