Germantown, Tenn. — A Germantown cafe owner is putting extra measures in place to cut down on risks and keep employees and customers safe.

Signs at Java Cafe in Germantown make it clear that no customers are allowed inside. The owner, John Celli, says only four people—employees only—are allowed inside the restaurant. If they go to the store, they wear their N95 masks for safety.

“Regardless if it’s the COVID-19 or the flu or anything,” Celli said.

Celli, who has been following the COVID-19 crisis, invested in the masks months ago. The goal is to cut down risk of infection.

He says too much contact could lead to a snowball effect.

“Where one person leads to 10, which leads to hundreds,” Celli said. “So if I can say I’ve had no customers in my restaurant for the last week and a half, that way I can be reasonably certain the inside is still OK.”

He’s even bought hundreds of pens for customers to cut down on possible contamination.

“If they don’t have a pen. They just keep the pen, so that next time, hopefully they will be in the same vehicle so that they can just sign with it,” Celli said.

Celli says he’s been following doing the curbside only pickup for the last week and a half or so. He says business has been slightly down but mostly steady.

He’s thankful his restaurant was already doing a large amount of to-go orders before the COVID-19 outbreak.