!["We can take ideas and then we can adjust, and hopefully that will allow other [restaurants] to do the same thing."](https://media.kare11.com/assets/KARE/images/58d78a03-a349-48cb-a6c5-a7a60075b3d8/58d78a03-a349-48cb-a6c5-a7a60075b3d8_1920x1080.jpg)
PRIOR LAKE, Minn. — The phone at PLate in Prior Lake is still ringing, but sales are a sliver of what they once were.
Co-owner Matthew Winter says the restaurant is open every evening for takeout and delivery through DoorDash, but that only amounts to about 30 percent of their pre-pandemic sales.
"Oh, we're losing money with that, yeah. Every week, every day, we're losing money," Winter said.
Winter says PLate isn't the only restaurant in Prior Lake struggling.
"What [other restaurant owners are] telling me, what I'm hearing from the vast majority, is June 1 is the cut-off date. If they're not open June 1, it's over," he said.
That's why Prior Lake's mayor and city council sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, laying out ideas for how restaurants in the city could safely reopen soon and serve as a test site for the rest of the state.
"We can take ideas and then we can adjust, and hopefully that will allow other [restaurants] to do the same thing," Winter said.
Ideas include opening at partial capacity, reservation only in most cases, so people can stay at least six feet apart.
All employees would wear masks and gloves and bring food out on carts.
"So, instead of your server dropping it off table side, they're going to push a cart in front of your table and you're going to grab your food yourself," explained Winter.
Winter says customers might also order through their phone, allowing servers to stay physically distanced from them. Menus would be disposable, and restaurants would adhere to specific cleaning protocols.
Winter says almost all the restaurants in Prior Lake are independently owned, which allows them to make these changes without any corporate oversight. He says that could make the city the perfect test location.
"We can do it," he said.
In a phone call with KARE 11, Prior Lake mayor, Kirt Briggs, said he heard from the Governor's Chief of Staff Tuesday morning about the city's request and was told they would be in touch.