Restaurants get busier when beach traffic starts

Spring Break 2019 is underway and that means more people traveling through Covington County spending money at restaurants, gas stations and packing the roadways.

Zaxby’s District Manager Kari Barnes said that Spring Break is always a time where they are busiest.

“Over the weekends, especially, it is always crazy,” Barnes said. “We are grateful to be located where we are. Usually we get around 2,200 cars in the drive-thru and then add that with the people we see inside and we get usually over 4,000 a day on the weekends.”

Despite the surge of customers, Barnes said that it has come a little later this year than usual.

“Usually the surge comes during the first week of March,” Barnes said. “This year it has just hit now.”

Jack’s Restaurant manager Blake Tillery said that they have been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but not as busy as when they opened in January.

“Our opening week was the busiest that we have been,” Tillery said. “We have been pretty busy during Spring Break though.”

Since they have only been open a couple of months, Tillery does not know if their rush has been from locals or beach traffic.

“I think that it is mostly half and half,” Tillery said. “But I can’t be too sure because I don’t know the faces and names of our regulars yet. Ask me in about a year and I’ll be able to tell you for sure. We are staffed up pretty solid to make sure we are prepared for spring breakers though.”

Subway has been busy the past two to three weeks with beach traffic, as well.

“The rush usually comes in between 11 a.m., and 3 p.m.,” Subway manager Jerrica Bleichroth said. “We are getting around 2,000 people a day coming in the restaurant.”

Bleichroth said that she believes most of their customers are people from up north driving south to the beach.

“We are usually this busy during Spring Break,” Bleichroth said. “Most of the time it is people going to the beach, but we still get our usual people. We always do extra prep, work longer hours and make sure we have extra bread during Spring Break.”

Traffic is another thing that increases significantly when spring breaks begin.

River Falls Police Chief Cody Warren said that this year the traffic has increased.

“It has definitely been pretty busy so far,” Warren said. “It seems to increase every year. The weekends have been crazy especially.”

When it comes to safety, Warren said that drivers are still driving the same.

“It’s just one of those things,” Warren said. “I could have 100 officers out there and if you stop one for driving recklessly they are all going to do it, because they see that you stopped somebody else and can’t pull them over.”