BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The first guests since March were at the Cocoa Beach Pier’s restaurants Friday.
The pier reopened its boardwalk for oceanfront dining daily between 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
One of the first guests Friday morning was Preston Lewis, he said eating on the pier is one of his favorite things to do in Cocoa Beach.
"It feels incredible," he said about being on the boardwalk again. "It's nice to see everybody doing the proper things - social distancing, being clean and controlled and all of that," Lewis said.
The pier started reopening on Monday.
The first phase was the parking lot and two stores not on the boardwalk.
The pier called Monday a soft-opening.
Management said between the start of this week and Friday, the pier met its expectations for reopening safely.
There are no tables indoors and guests dining on the boardwalk first get their temperatures checked.
"The guests are excited that we're back open. I mean, this is a landmark destination for people to come and relax, and eat some good food and enjoy the ocean," General Manager Andrew Spinner said.
Two things guests will still have to continue to wait for - sitting at a bar and fishing from the pier's boardwalk.
Spinner said fishing is more difficult to enforce, in terms of the distancing, than spacing out tables for dining.
“We felt that right now, it wouldn’t be easy for us to regulate social distancing. So until things get a little more relaxed, then we’ll reevaluate and get the fishing open,” he said.