As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread, restaurants around Alabama have had to come up with creative ways to adjust to what one restaurateur calls “the new normal.”

Earlier this week, the Alabama Department of Public Health banned on-premise consumption of food and beverages at restaurants, bars and breweries throughout the six-county area that includes Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Blount, St. Clair and Shelby counties. Today, the state health department extended those restrictions to all 67 counties in Alabama.

While some restaurants are offering curbside and delivery service to try to make ends meet, a few -- including all three of James Beard Award winners Frank and Pardis Stitt’s Birmingham restaurants -- have temporarily closed altogether out of concern for the health of their staffs, their customers and their communities.

In the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills, executive chef and owner George McMillan III made the call Tuesday to close his restaurant for at least the next two weeks.

“I’m just trying to do what I can to protect my staff and my community and sit back and take a deep breath and see how things work out,” McMillan told AL.com. “It’s trying times, but we’re going to get through it.”

Meanwhile, those restaurants that have decided to stay open are doing so with smaller staffs, shorter hours, fewer customers and significantly less income.

“We’re operating with skeleton crews,” Brandon Cain, chef and co-owner of Saw’s Soul Kitchen and Post Office Pies in Avondale, said. “We’re not ordering a lot of food. It’s crazy how fast it’s happening. It changes every hour.”

So, what can you do to help your favorite Alabama restaurants get through these trying times? Here are five suggestions:

Pull up to the curb and pick up a to-go order

The simplest way to support your local restaurant is to keep spending your money there. And one of the best ways to do that, until further notice, is to pick up the phone or go online and place a to-go order.

When you pull up to the curb, your server will bring you your food – usually with a grateful smile and maybe even a nice thank-you note – and not only will you have taken care of lunch or dinner but you also will have done your part to help them stay in business for another day.

“We’ve sold about 35 percent (Wednesday) of what we normally do in sales, and it’s increased day by day,” Chris Bajalieh, who, along with his brothers Jeff and Jason, owns Sol’s Sandwich Shop and Deli, SkyCastle and two Slice Pizza & Brew locations, said of the restaurants’ curbside sales. “People are getting the hang of the new normal we have right now with restaurants.”

(While Sol’s and Slice remain open for curbside pick-up and delivery service, SkyCastle has temporarily closed because its location on a busy street in the crowded Lakeview area made it difficult to offer pick-up service, Bajalieh said.)

Have your meal delivered to your home or work

In addition to curbside pick-up, some restaurants, such as Ted’s Restaurant near UAB in Birmingham, are offering free lunch delivery to customers in the downtown and Southside area. The free delivery is for orders of five or more lunches.

“The coronavirus has paralyzed this city,” Ted’s co-owner Tasos Touloupis tells his sons John and Alexios in a funny Facebook video launching Ted’s delivery service. “But there are still people who need their lunch. Take. Ted’s. Go.”

Meanwhile, Baumhower’s Victory Grille -- which has nine locations throughout the state, from Mobile to Huntsville -- said in a media release today that it is teaming with the Waitr online food delivery service to allow some of Baumhower’s employees to help with Waitr home deliveries.

“We are working with Waitr to help offset the drastic drop in dine-in business and help meet Waitr’s increased demand for delivery,” the release said. “We are working hand in-hand with Waitr to allow our service team members who have been affected to begin delivering for Waitr. Waitr has allowed for all Baumhower’s team members they bring aboard to wear their Baumhower’s Victory Grille Team Legendary attire as their Waitr delivery uniform.”

“Our focus is to use our relationships to come together as a team to pull through this and continue to be able to serve our guests as we have done for over 40 years,” Baumhower’s founder Bob Baumhower added.

Tip like you’ve never tipped them before

This should go without saying, but whether you’re doing curbside service or getting your meal delivered, please remember to tip your servers or delivery drivers generously.

Fewer customers and shorter hours mean less tips, and since they depend on tips to supplement their wages, now would be a good time to tip like there’s no tomorrow.

So, if you typically tip 20 percent, maybe double that -- if it’s within your means.

You’ll feel good about it, and the restaurant staff will appreciate it, too.

Buy a gift certificate, and then buy another one

Gift cards are a good way to help struggling restaurants generate some immediate cash flow.

Cain, of Post Office Pies and Saw’s Soul Kitchen, said it is best to order gift certificates directly from the restaurants instead of through third-party services, which typically charge the restaurants a fee.

“A lot of people are buying gift cards and trying to buy them directly,” Cain said. “That’s revenue that can help us to (stay) open.

“If you buy it directly from the restaurant, the restaurant gets 100 percent of the money.”

Some third-party services, such as the OpenTable gift card marketplace, have waived their fees during the COVID-19 outbreak, however.

“During this time, we’ve waived our gift card fees to restaurants to better help our partners,” OpenTable said in a statement. “Restaurants in other areas or not in the marketplace may offer gift cards through their websites; we encourage you to reach out to your favorites. We’re all in this together.”

Tell them you love them, and hang in there with them

For those restaurants that have already closed indefinitely, one of the nicest things you can do to help, FoodBar’s McMillan said, is to just let them know how much you care, and that you’ll be there when they reopen.

“I’ve got customers that want to support me, that are scared for me and know that my business is on the front line, and they don’t want to see it go away,” McMillan said. “They’re saying, ‘How can I get a gift certificate and redeem it for take-out food?’

“I’m telling them, ‘Just give us two weeks, and we’ll get back together. . . . Just hold on, and when we come back, every night will be like Friday night for six months.’”

NOTE: AL.com’s Shauna Stuart has complied an ongoing list of restaurants that are offering curbside and delivery service in the Birmingham metro area. To read it, go here. The list is updated periodically.