BATON ROUGE - As the state faces yet another surge, restaurants in the capital area are taking precautions to keep their staff and customers safe.

"Today City Group Hospitality and all of our restaurants implemented our mask policy for all of our employees from the front of the house staff to the back,” said Stephen Hightower Managing Partner at City Group Hospitality.

As the state is looking at its fourth surge, restaurants are already seeing the effects in the Togo order sales that are increasing.

"We've worked so hard in the past year to work on all of our safety protocols and in an effort to get ahead of it. We wanted to make sure people could dine at any City Group Hospitality restaurant and feel good about their experience,” said Hightower.

He's hoping they won't have to return to strictly drive-thru and to-gos, which was a huge financial blow to food spots in the area.

"I think there is a fear out there, after what we all traversed this past year and now actually finding this normalcy. Now here we go again, but I think there is still some pause because we didn't have a vaccine last year. We have a vaccine now,” said Hightower.

With the vaccine giving him and other businesses hope, Hightower is confident this time, they know what they are walking into and exactly how to face it.

"We've from day one have worked on every sanitation and safety protocol that's been asked of us. We felt like we've always provided a safe environment and we are willing to do what the government asks us to do to move on,” said Hightower

All to keep their customers safe and comfortable.

As of Thursday, no new state restrictions have been put in place by Governor John Bel Edwards. He has a press conference set for Friday, at 3 p.m.