2020
Latest Update: July 7, 2020
The Texas Restaurant Association is committed to providing our members with resources and opportunities to help manage elements within our control. We are your voice and stand together with you in these challenging times. We have created this page to serve as your comprehensive guide to stay up to date on the latest coronavirus information and find resources to protect your business. This page will continue to be updated as more information is made available by the CDC, other health organizations, and our lawmakers.
Every night we send out a recap email outlining the work done that day, new resources, answers to common questions, and action alerts for advocacy. Not receiving that email? Sign up in the sidebar on the right.
The Texas Restaurant Pandemic Directory page has been launched to provide Texas restaurants access to discounted products and services for restaurant businesses during this crisis. For a limited time, the TRA is offering access to any company wanting to advertise its specials for restaurants and industry employees.
Also, TRA has a mobile app for use by TRA members and allied members. This is another way to make sure you’re getting the most timely information and updates.
Navigation
Reopening | Relief & Aid | Purchase Supplies and PPE | HR & Employment | Regulatory Guidance from the State | Advocacy Updates | Sanitation Guides | Off-Premise Resources | Resources for Employees | Health and Testing Information | Operations, Legal Contracts & Insurance | Spanish
Reopening
On April 27, 2020, Governor Abbott issued an Executive Order that will allow most restaurants to reopen their dining spaces with limited capacity beginning on May 1, 2020. He also issued statewide protocols that reopening restaurants must follow. These statewide protocols are encompassed by the “Texas Restaurant Promise”—the product of weeks of collaboration between the Texas Restaurant Association, restaurants of all sizes, and health officials across the nation to develop guidelines that would enable restaurants to safely reopen their dining spaces during the COVID-19 recovery.
- Texas.gov: Open Texas Checklist for Restaurants (Updated 07/03)
- Texas.gov: Open Texas Checklist for Restaurant Customers (Updated 07/03)
- Texas.gov: Bars and Bar Patrons: "All bars and similar establishments that receive more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages are required to close at 12:00PM June 26, 2020. These businesses may remain open for delivery and take-out, including for alcoholic beverages, as authorized by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission."
- MarshWortham Playbook for Reopening Restaurants
- FDA: Best Practices for Reopening Retail Food Establishments
- Texas Mutual: Restaurant Risk Insights, COVID-19 Reopening Considerations
- Think Food Group's Reopening Playbook
OSHA Guidance:
- Revised Enforcement Guidance for Recording Cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
- Updated Interim Enforcement Response Plan for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
ECOLAB Reopening Resources:
The Texas Restaurant Promise
Read the Texas Restaurant Promise, find the FAQs we’ve put together to guide restaurants as they reopen, and see related resources here.
The Texas Bar Promise
Read the Texas Bar Promise, find the FAQs we’ve put together to guide bars, taverns, and night clubs as they reopen, and see related resources here.
HR & Employment
- What to do if one of your employees tests positive for COVID-19 - A step-by-step checklist with detailed information from the CDC and state.
- Texas Mutual: Coronavirus FAQ for employers - Guidance on Workers Compensation claims associated with COVID-19.
- Texas Mutual: Protecting Workers from Coronavirus - Guidance on how you can help protect your workers from COVID-19.
- JacksonLewis: Families First Coronavirus Response Act - A Disability, Leave & Health Management blog offering practical legal guidance to employers.
- Coronavirus' Impact on Texas Restaurant Employers (recorded webinar) - A TRA recorded webinar where JacksonLewis attorneys discuss what their restaurant clients are most frequently asking about how to operate their establishments while still meeting their legal obligations.
- Texas Workforce Commission: Mass Claims Procedures and Unemployment Benefits
Relief & Aid
- Donate to the TX Restaurant Relief Fund - Learn more about the TRA’s newly established relief fund helping our member restaurants
- Comfort Food Care Package Program - Consumers purchase a Comfort Food Care Package from a restaurant to be donated as meals for at-risk youth and families in communities across Texas as the state responds to COVID-19
- SBA Disaster Recovery Assistance (recorded webinar) - TRA and SBA recorded webinar on disaster recovery assistance
- SBA to Provide Disaster Assistance Loans for Small Businesses Impacted - Federal Disaster Loans for Businesses, Private Nonprofits, Homeowners, and Renters
- Southern Smoke’s Hospitality Emergency Relief - Provides funding to individuals in the food and beverage industry who are in crisis
- CORE – Children of Restaurant Employees - Provides support to food and beverage service employees, with children, who have been medically diagnosed with COVID-19. You may also be eligible if a family member is diagnosed.
- James Beard Relief Fund - Currently raising money to provide micro-grants to independent food and beverage businesses in need.
- Talk to Your Landlord About COVID-19 - Guidance on how to start a conversation about what you can and can’t do for your lease.
- Greater Houston Recovery Fund - This will help the most vulnerable of Houston neighbors meet their basic needs and will help impactful nonprofits in our area serve our community through the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic aftermath.
Purchase Supplies and PPE
This list of suppliers have been vetted and approved by TRA. View all of them on our Texas Restaurant Pandemic Directory page.
Regulatory Guidance from the State
- TABC's Latest Guidance
- TABC & Serving Mixed Beverages to Go - The TRA clarifies some of the confusion surrounding selling alcoholic beverages to guests while dining rooms are shut down.
- Texas Restaurants Becoming Retail Suppliers - TRA works with State officials so that restaurants can now sell retail products direct to consumers.
- TRA's County Tracker - Where we are tracking the changes in all 254 counties in Texas, including face covering requirements and the status of dining rooms.
Advocacy Updates
- The Texas Restaurant Survival Plan - Our eight point plan directed at the State that combines aid from the CARES Act with the policy reforms we need to save Texas restaurants, bars, and other foodservice businesses. #SaveTXRestaurants
- Paycheck Protection is Killing Restaurants, Source: Wall Street Journal
- How much of my PPP loan will be forgiven? Calculator
- Restaurants and CARES Act with Senator Cornyn (Recorded webinar, 4/1/2020)
- Texas Workforce Commission Takes Restaurant Owners' Questions (Recorded webinar, 3/26/2020)
- SBA Disaster Recovery Assistance (Recorded webinar, 3/25/2020)
Sanitation Guides
- ECOLAB EPA Approved Cleaning Products
- Center for Biocide Chemistries: Novel Coronavirus-Fighting Products
- ECOLAB: Disinfecting Hard, Non-porous Surfaces
- ECOLAB: Peroxide Multi Surface Disinfectant
Off-Premises Resources
- Curbside and Delivery for Full Service Restaurants (recorded webinar)
- Vinder Launches Restaurant-Fueled Farmers Market
- Kitchen United: Takeout & Delivery Best Practices (Marketing)
- Kitchen United: Takeout and Delivery Best Practices for Getting Started and Setting Up
- Ordering.app, Part of Google, Waiving Service Fees Until July 1
Resources for Employees
- Texas Workforce Commission: Shared Work Unemployment Benefits Plan
- Restaurant Workers' Community Foundation
- United States Bartenders' Guild
- Another Round, Another Rally: Emergency Relief
- James Beard Foundation Relief Fund
- The Lee Initiative: Restaurant Workers Relief Program
- Department of Labor: Employee Rights Under Families First Coronavirus Response Act
- Austin-Area Restaurants Offering Free Meals and Discounts to Industry Employees - Industry employees who have recently lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis can use this resource to feed themselves and their families.
Health & Testing Information
- Texas Health & Human Services: COVID-19 Testing Information
- Texas DPS Map of Test Collection Sites
- Texas Department of State Health Services: Texas Case Counts
Operations, Legal Contracts and Insurance
- June 19 - Memo to TRA from Monty & Ramirez LLP
- Monty & Ramirez COVID-19 Return to Work Guidance
- COVID-19 Restaurant Temporary Closing Guide (PDF) - A summarized list of considerations for a temporary restaurant close down by A la Carte Foodservice Consulting Group.
- Marsh Risk Consulting: COVID-19 Playbook for Restaurants
- Restaurant Closing Audit Checklist (XLS) - A comprehensive closing checklist created by RK iNNOVATION.
- Skadden: Implications of Coronavirus - A legal article on COVID-19 and its implications for commercial and financial contracts.
- GreenbergTraurig: Coronavirus and Force Majeure Contract Clauses - Legal advice on issues relating to the coronavirus and its effects, such as the invocation and enforceability of force majeure clauses in contracts.
- JacksonLewis Resource - Jackson Lewis provides a comprehensive list of links and important resources to help answer some of the most common questions around COVID-19.
- Temporary Menu Labeling Policy During COVID-19 - This consists of how your menu should be labeled through the COVID-19 crisis.
- SBA Certification Regarding Lobbying Form
- EnergyBot: Energy Resource Guide
Spanish
Originally Published: February 28, 2020.
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