Monday was the first business day of the government shutdown. Hundreds of restaurants surround Robins Air Force Base that may have been affected.
We went to two local restaurants, McCall's Taste to Remember and Martin's BBQ, to see how they were doing during the shutdown. Ken McCall, the owner of Taste to Remember, recalled the last government shutdown in 2013.
"Because so much of our business comes from the good people on the base that come to us for lunch, we slow way, way down. It does not completely shut us down, but it cuts about 50 percent to 60 percent of our daily income," said McCall.
McCall said despite the shutdown, business is holding up at the restaurant.
"It's about the same right now because the workers were going in and being briefed about what's going on, and right now, we are having about an average crowd," McCall said.
Closer to the entrance of Robins Air Force Base near Hawkinsville Road is Martin's BBQ. Matthew Martin, the pitmaster at Martin's, said they would have expected a hit if the shutdown continued.
"Based off of last time, we will probably go down a little bit. When things are booming on the base, they're booming here, so you know, when things are down on the base, we will be down, too," Martin said.
Martin continued to say the last shutdown did affect business. "We went down 20 percent for a bit, but it did bounce pretty quick."
Martin told us that during the shutdown, they do keep in touch with the other restaurants to make sure they are doing alright.