A Texas restaurant has installed a 'disinfectant portal' that sprays customers with a skin-safe sanitizer before they enter

• The owner of Alamo Biscuit Co. in San Antonio, Texas, installed a step-through "disinfectant portal" that mists customers with a sanitizer spray.
• The spray is activated with the touch of a button.
• The restaurant's owner told ABC 13 that the entryway's mist is chlorine-based, skin-safe, and kills 99.7% of germs.
• The installation is one example of how restaurant owners are adapting to social-distanced dining and COVID-19 precautions in their establishments.

From an eatery in Amsterdam that built individual greenhouses for diners to enjoy their meals, to seating arrangements that offer face shields, restaurants around the world are getting creative with new layouts, precautions, and social-distancing measures.

One restaurant in Texas is taking a different approach. Before diners enter the eatery to enjoy their favorite brunch foods, they can walk through a device that sprays a sanitizing solution.

Alamo Biscuit Co. in San Antonio labeled the step-through archway a "disinfectant portal." The restaurant's owner, John Vale, referred to the device as a "sanitation station" in an interview with Houston's ABC 13.

A video shared with Insider from the restaurant shows a demonstration of the disinfectant-spraying entryway.

Before stepping into the archway, customers are greeted with a "caution" sign, which tells them to "Close eyes and mouth" when walking through the contraption.

The mist — which is chlorine-based, skin-safe, and kills 99.7% of germs — is activated with the touch of a button, and it's not required for customers to use it, though many have been walking through the mist when they enter and leave the restaurant, Vale said.

"So far, they are liking it. We have customers that are using it as they come in, and then they use it as they go out," Vale told ABC 13.

Customers are also required to wear face masks in the restaurant when they're not eating, Vale told San Antonio news station KSAT 12.

In most Texas counties, face masks are required to be worn in public spaces

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into action an order in early July that requires residents of counties with at least 20 reported coronavirus cases to wear a face mask in businesses and outdoors in public spaces when social distancing isn't possible. Violators could be fined up to $250, according to the order.

The governor's sweeping face mask order was in response to weeks of record total COVID-19 cases in the state. At the end of June, Abbott also announced that the state would be pausing its reopening procedures, meaning businesses that already reopened could stay in operation, but with limited capacity.

On July 17, the Texas Department of Health reported 174 new coronavirus-linked fatalities and 10,256 new cases, bringing the state's total number of cases to 307,572.

Vale did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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