Some Restaurants Move From Takeout to Temporary Closure

While restaurants are required by Nebraska’s Directed Health Measure to close their dining rooms, some are taking the extra step to move to a full temporary closure.

Some restaurants never started takeout or delivery because their menu and staff were not suited to it. Others served delivery or takeout for some time but have now decided to close. In Lincoln, Honest Abe’s and Amu Manu Ramen are among those that have ended their takeout service.

The Warm Cookie in Lincoln provided takeout and delivery through late last week. The owner says staff was extremely busy with orders of cookies for birthdays and for grandparents sending cookies to grandchildren.

Tricia Ward is owner of the Warm Cookie. She decided to close the business, which she and her family run, as the number of cases of COVID-19 in Nebraska increased.

“In November I had a major brain aneurysm and I wasn’t expected to live, and I was on a ventilator for several days. And I just thought, I don’t want my staff to ever have to go through something like that. And so that’s what made me say, it was getting bad enough in Nebraska that I was like, 'We need to stop and just be home for a while.'”

Ward hopes to reopen her business in a few weeks, but will be watching the status of COVID-19 in Nebraska closely.