Salud!

Restaurants across New Mexico are allowed to open up their patios on Wednesday, but many businesses in Doña Ana County are choosing to stay closed.

Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham has asked restaurants in Doña Ana County not to participate in this soft opening, and wait to open at 50 percent capacity on Monday, June 1, due to how fast the coronavirus is spreading in our area.

If you live in Las Cruces, you’ll notice a lot of restaurants are choosing to comply.

“When the governor said, ‘You know what, can Doña Ana County please maintain being closed until the 1st?’ We were all really in support of that,” Marci Dickerson, the owner of The Game Sports Bar and Grill said.

Dickerson is spending the next few days bringing her staff back to work. They spent their day cleaning and preparing her restaurants to open back up on Monday at 50 percent capacity.

“To be able to open us up at 50 percent really is a sign that New Mexico is moving forward in a much needed fashion,” Dickerson said.

Tom Hutchinson, the owner of La Posta and Hacienda de Mesilla also has decided to wait till June 1 to open his doors.

“We’re really focused on opening up on the 1st, doing it right, being effective and minimizing any issues associated with reopening,” Hutchinson said.

He said the decision was not only to comply with governors suggestion, but he didn’t feel his restaurants were quite ready to open for dine-in yet.

“We applauded her for giving us the opportunity to open a little early, starting today with outdoor dining, but the reality is a lot of us weren’t probably in a position to do it anyway,” Hutchinson said.

Russell Hernandez, the owner of Salud de Mesilla agrees.

He said knowing that there’s a set date to re-open on June 1, feels like a light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s super exciting right now to have the opportunity to welcome our guests back when we haven’t seen them for so long in our buildings per say, they’ve still been joining us, but car side isn’t quite the same,” Hernandez said.

Las Cruces has been stepping up to support its eateries in their times of need. Since sitting areas are closed, and to-go or home delivery are the only options, some restaurants are looking at new ways to stay green while serving their customers.

Russell Hernandez, co-owner of Salud! de Mesilla at 1800 Avenida de Mesilla, said he has tried to adjust as much as possible. The normally well-lit dining room is dark, but he’s answering customer calls as they come in, ready to take to-go orders, and he also is handling orders popping up on the business website.

While Salud’s hours have changed — Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., Hernandez said Salud!’s business values remain unchanged, which include providing sustainable business tactics, such as serving orders in paper/cardboard containers made with sustainable forestry initiatives.

Even though his containers won’t be recycled — the containers have food waste that contaminates them — it’s a way for customers to be reminded that Styrofoam and plastic bags don’t need to be the only way to-go for to-go to be handled. In fact, Hernandez said he carries each order out in a brown bag paper (which can be recycled) and has gone completely electronic with his purchases. Customers get a text or an email with their receipt.

“Every bit helps,” Hernandez said. “Some of our regular customers will have their insulated bags in their trunk and we bring their order to them and place it in their bags.”

He said the only issue he’s had with sustainability has been with condiments.

“We’ll have changes with that in the future, but I wanted to use what we have in stock first now,” he said. “We’re committed to see our customers here in the future, but we know we can stay as green as possible in the meantime.”

The first three five-minute episodes of the new series were screened during an April 5 premiere party at Salud! de Mesilla, where the first episode of the series was shot.

As the restaurateurs behind the popular eatery Salud! de Mesilla prepare to expand their business, they’ve partnered with the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at New Mexico State University to give students the chance to put their knowledge to the test.

For the final project in Betsy Stringam’s HRTM 434 Hospitality Capstone class, students conducted in-depth case studies on Salud! de Mesilla last fall. Their task involved analyzing various options for business expansion, writing detailed reports to justify their recommendations and presenting their findings to owners Russell Hernandez and Christopher Schaljo.

Now, Hernandez and Schaljo, both NMSU alumni, plan to implement some of the students’ ideas in their business expansion.

“This project brought a sense of real-life to the classroom,” Stringam said. “The students were able to do a project that resembles what they have to do in the real world. Now, they’ll know how to complete an ROI (return on investment) and calculate the costs and revenues associated with investments such as a restaurant expansion.”