WINDSOR, ONT. -- Restaurants are gearing up for their first weekend of indoor dining since the area went into lockdown last December.

“I love it. Like Tuesday night, our first night I felt full of energy I could’ve worked until 2 or 3 in the morning because I had people in here,” says Giovanni Cassano, part owner of Ortona Cafe.

Located in the heart of historic Walkerville, Cassano says indoor dining has been steady since Tuesday, when Windsor-Essex moved into the red zone.

“People are excited, they’re anxious, they wanna go out and it just makes them feel normal again,” he says.

Establishments are only allowed to have 10 patrons seated indoors and a limit of four people may be seated together.

“I’m able to get away with it. You know overhead costs, controlling the labour costs. For me, it’s good but we still have to make a big effort with the takeout food which has been going well,” says Cassano.

He expects food goers to start their night earlier than usual, since one of the measures under the red zone includes closing down by 10 p.m.

“The second wave it was harder than the first one,” says Eddy Hammmoud, owner of Tabouli by Eddy’s in Tecumseh.

He says indoor dining has been hit and miss this past week due to the weather, but he’s expecting to turn tables this weekend to accommodate all customers.

“Each table gets an hour and a half to come sit down and dine, enjoy their experience and get the next customer in basically,” Hammoud says.

He hopes this is just the first of many weekends customers can enjoy going out for a meal.

“One thing I’m really anxiously looking forward to is the summer to come back,” he says. “Last summer we had a great experience having a lot of entertainment outside.”