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Local Restaurants Get Creative To Meet State's Reopening Requirements

ECHO PARK (CBSLA) -- With a slew of new guidelines from the state in order to reopen safely, some restaurants around L.A. County have had to get creative.

One Echo Park restaurant is taking cues from a design popular overseas. Lady Byrd cafe is using quarantine greenhouses in the parking lot — a European style that owner Misty Mansouri said fit the cafe's reopening plans from a safety and visual standpoint.

"Keep the magic, right?" she said. "Cause nobody wants to feel like they're in a hospital bed."

The four private-yet-public pods are cleaned between every use and, yes, they do get a little heated.

"We have fans as well so you're getting some ventilation," Mansouri said. The pods also have windows on each side and a door.

The pods offer a level of social distancing that some customers want nowadays.

"I like how cute it was, I liked how safe it was," said customer Carolina Ortiz. "I was a little nervous about eating out with everything going on but I actually love the way they spaced everything out, it felt very secure."

It's been a balance that restaurants all over L.A. are trying to find — limited in how and where they serve people.

Nesmon Cafe in Sherman Oaks has tables all the way to the curb. To help restaurants rebound safely, the city of L.A. is currently allowing restaurants expand onto the sidewalks and into parking lots.

"I wouldn't be able to even stay open without that because I wouldn't be able to put enough tables in," said the cafe's owner, Nily Yefheshalon. "It wouldn't make any sense."

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