Food supplies are tough to get, for one thing, restaurateurs said, with several wholesalers shut down. Some employees are nervous about going back to work. And the economics are difficult; the state rules allow only 25 percent of normal seating capacity, with tables at least 10 feet apart, edge to edge.

Just how brisk business will be also remains a question. Some would-be diners no doubt remain nervous about closed spaces and the adequacy of safety protocols and are no more willing to walk into a restaurant than they are to board an airplane. Anchorage’s mayor, Ethan Berkowitz, said on Friday that even when things open in that city on Monday, he would be sticking with takeout, at least for the time being.

Sam Slater, who owns a glass repair business in Fairbanks, may well have been the pioneering diner in the city, first of the first as doors began to open. He had heard last week that the Red Fox Bar and Grill, co-owned by a friend of his, Rick Mensik, was aiming to open for lunch on Friday at 11 a.m.

“So I just texted Rick and I said, ‘What do I got to do, make a reservation or what, you know?’ I said it kind of jokingly,” Mr. Slater said. Under the new rules — no walk-in customers allowed — a reservation was indeed required, Mr. Mensik replied. “So I put it in and I was there at 11,” Mr. Slater said.

Mr. Mensik said he took the order at 11:01: wings, the house specialty and one of Mr. Slater’s favorite dishes, and a beer.

“He wanted to be the first, so that’s what we did,” said Mr. Mensik, 69, a musician who rambled across the country playing in soul bands and Las Vegas lounges before arriving in Fairbanks in the early 1970s for a gig and falling in love with the city.

Fairbanks has not been among the nation’s hardest-hit places in the pandemic, with 79 coronavirus cases and two deaths — though it has the third-highest incidence rate of any borough, as counties are called here, in the state. The economic downturn has been less gloomy than in some places, too. In March, the unemployment rate was 5 percent, one of the lowest in the state, partly because of expansion at nearby Eielson Air Force Base, which has had spillover benefits.