With a storm again on its way to the Central Coast, locals and tourists filled up restaurants in downtown San Luis Obispo before it arrived.
“Usually when there's rain, we are super slow and people like to stay inside," Emma Stoudenmire, Guiseppe's hostess, said. "But it was even crazier than normal, I guess, of the three-day weekend.”
Guiseppe’s wait times ranged from over an hour to over three hours with locals and tourists taking advantage of outdoor seating.
“We do have a back patio and especially in the morning, all we seat is the main restaurant and then the back patio," Stoudenmire said. "When there's rain, we can't seat the back patio. ... So right now we're kind of a little congested.”
Foot traffic remained heavy on both Monterey and Higuera streets, with crosswalks and parking spots lined with customers. Last year’s storm caused Burger Village to shut down, but this year’s winter has been manageable.
“This year so far it's been a little better," Burger Village owner Ashish Verma said. "Especially it didn't rain as [much] when it did, but we didn't get any flooding where we had to shut down.”
During slower weekends Verma sends people home early, but he said he’s hopeful with the holiday weekend foot traffic will remain steady.
“We know if it's a longer weekend, it's going to be very busy for us," Verma said of the holiday weekend. "We compare our last year's sales also. So we have all that data and but then we also look into if it's going to rain.”
For places on Monterey Street with no elevation, Guiseppe's workers prepare the area with mats and mop regularly during their shifts to prevent the floor from getting too wet.
Restaurants like Burger Village have slight advantages during rain storms with slight elevation when you walk into the business.
