LOUISVILLE, Ky. — People are eating out more, and Bearno’s co-owner George Timmering is reaping the rewards.

“We’re getting very close to being back where we were, from a sales perspective, before COVID,” Timmering said. “But I think once everything is in place and the staffing is there, we might be doing better.”

Friday was the first day he and other restaurant owners could operate at 75% capacity, a boost from the previous 60%.

There are also fewer social distancing requirements for bars and restaurants and no more curfew.  

“We’re excited about it,” Timmering said. “It’s moving forward, getting back closer to normalcy.”

Over the last few months, as more and more people got vaccinated against the coronavirus and case numbers dropped, Timmering said he noticed a significant uptick in customers.

“In the hours that we’re operating, dinner time on the weekends, we’re at full [60%] capacity,” Timmering said. “So we are seeing a lot of demand and whatnot so we’re using every table we have on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Bearno’s used to be open later before the pandemic, but Timmering said he needs more staff if he’s going to extend his current hours.

“I hate to say this: we’re turning down revenue right now because of the lack of staffing,” he said. "So as we get more people, more staffing, then we’ll be able to extend our hours.”

Stacy Roof with the Kentucky Restaurant Association said staffing is a common issue right now.  

“The good thing about our industry is there are plenty of positions available in a lot of different formats; front of house, back of house,” Roof said. “There’s a lot of flexibility there.”

Roof doesn’t expect the staffing shortage to last much longer, and Timmering said more people have been applying since the Kentucky Derby.

“That’s helped quite a bit; given us a little bit of breathing room,” he said. “We’re still not quite where we want to be at full staffing, but things have improved a lot in the month of May.”

And given what the last year has been like, he’s not worried about this kind of problem.

“Where we were even a few months ago, we’re in a totally better place now,” Timmering said. “And these issues and challenges we’re having are good because it’s about handling more and more business.”

Gov. Andy Beshear plans to remove most coronavirus restrictions, including capacity limits and the mask mandate, on June 11. The mask mandate has already been lifted for vaccinated people, although businesses can still enforce their own rules.