Restaurants ordered to close doors to guests

Alabama restaurants and bars are now forced to no longer allow guests to eat or drink anything on the premises

Harsh new reality: waay 31's will robinson-smith is joining us live from the dining room of the brass tap.

Will, this new order is a big blow for restaurants.

That's exactly right.

This dining room is empty because the brass tap is closed for the night.

But the owner tells me it's looked like this since about 5 o'clock this afternoon.

And for restaurants like his that are less than a year old, this new change could be devastating.

Kurt morgenweck, owner, the brass tap we're hoping that people, after everything has cleared, come out and visit and help the local community recover from this crisis that we're all in.

Brass tap owner kurt morgenweck says governor ivey's new order wasn't necessarily surprising given the spread of the coronavirus, but says it's especially devastating for new restaurants like his kurt morgenweck, owner, the brass tap we're still working on developing our brand and our name out there and getting it into the community and getting that reputation that will allow us to make those profits.

Across bob wallace avenue, farm burger is also dealing with not being able to have customers eat and drink there.

General manager tara ledwell says they've already had to lay off 16 workers.

And now about 75 percent of her customers are ordering through third party vendors, like door dash.

Tara ledwell, general manager, farm burger just seeing the drop, especially in the parking lot, it just makes it more real.

For the customers who are still coming in, they say it's important for the community to step up and support local restaurants taking a big hit.

Kayla adams, supporting local restaurants at the end of the day, when this is all over, we want these small businesses to still be around.

So we need to rally around each other and be a tight-nit community, like we always have been, and get us through this time.

According to the alabama department of public health, the ban on eating or drinking in bars and restaurants will last statewide until april 5.

State officials will re-evaluate if that needs to be extended closer to that deadline.

Reporting live in huntsville, will robinson-smith waay