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Cape Cod Restaurant Owners Brace For A Difficult Summer

BOURNE (CBS) -- Summer on Cape Cod, it's a short but sweet couple of months.

But for restaurant owners and workers, this coming summer may leave bitter memories. The coronavirus pandemic could force social distancing rules on restaurants, making a short season even tougher to make a profit.

"We've got a bunch of different plans kind of in the works because we don't really know what it's going to look like. We don't know what the rules are going to be and what we'll be allowed to do and whether we'll have to drop seats," said Gui Yingling, whose family owns restaurants in Provincetown and Truro.

"The goal here is to keep our staff going and not have places go under," Yingling said. "We don't anticipate making any money this year, that's for sure."

Mac Hay owns a number of restaurants and fish markets across the Cape.

"This is not a summer where we are going to figure things out. This is a summer to try to simply survive," Hay said.

He, too says he just wants to keep his places open, and his staff working.

"It's the uncertainty at every level that concerns me from the supply chain to the number of customers we have."

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