TAYLOR, Texas — Christina Muhammad is a new restaurant owner preparing to ride out the next wave of COVID-19 by staying resilient this holiday season. Muhammad opened Seed too Soul Food, a vegetarian restaurant in Taylor, earlier last month.

When it comes to COVID safety in the establishment, Muhammad takes pride in enforcing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regardless of someone's vaccination status. 

The staff disinfects the dining room after each costumer and provides individual hand sanitizers at each table.

“I want to do as a business owner to do what is necessary to make sure that I am safe first and make sure that the people who come here are having safe and well prepared food,” Muhammad said. 

Across the Lone Star State dozens of restaurants are closing temporarily. Many are citing staffing shortages and COVID outbreaks in their communities. While the thought of closure has come up, Muhammad said she is not concerned about it impacting her restaurant. 

She believes operating a business in the age of COVID comes down to a mutual respect between business owners and consumers.

“It’s my job as a restaurant owner to find out what I can do to make things work so that we all can protect each other, ” said Muhammad.

While some restaurant operators in Texas are still recovering from the beginning of the pandemic, Kelsey Erickson-Streufert with the Texas Restaurant Association believes to keep businesses going during the pandemic calls for creativity.

“At this point in the pandemic it’s about being innovative and finding multiple ways to serve the consumer. Whether that’s takeout, to-go, delivery, buying meal kits and family meals. Even buying a gift card — we recently did a survey and found that 62% of American adults would love to get a restaurant gift card as a holiday gift,” said Kelsey Erickson-Streufert.