Dine-in customers can return inside Santa Barbara restaurants

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Santa Barbara restaurants are preparing to welcome guests back inside. Thursday is the first day of relaxed measures on how restaurants can serve food. One of those measures includes allowing a limited number of guests to dine inside.

Jason Harris is Santa Barbara's economic development director. He said, “We’re in the latter stages of Stage 2 of the Public Health order, which mean we’ll have indoor dining and indoor retail that is now allowed, starting today.”

Santa Barbara County Public Health released guidelines for restaurants and businesses explaining what they need to do in order to welcome customers inside. And some businesses have already started to implement some of those measures.

Richard Chilcott and his friends stopped for a morning coffee during a bike ride. He said, “Sense of freedom. A lot of that stuff that was renting space in my mind before is kind of gone now.”