FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — For some local restaurants, the heat has brought a decrease in business and some major changes or this week.

Renee Kemper is one of the owners of Yankabilly Smokehouse, a local food truck. She says with this being one of the hottest weeks, it puts a damper on business. The restaurant has had to change hours, decrease its staff, and take a few key items off of the menu temporarily.

“Business has gone down about 50% just in the last couple of weeks. So this week has definitely been the worse,” said Kemper. “Being a food truck, you know, we’re kind of a hotbox. We have had to turn our fryer off. We normally offer fries and homemade fried chips, and we haven’t been able to do that at all the last couple of weeks.”

Kemper says she and her employees have made taking on the heat a challenge to stay hydrated.

“We actually bought all of our employees really large, 40 ounce water cups. We have a competition going throughout the day to make sure that they can drink enough water, you know, to keep them hydrated. We make sure they have hydration packs to put in their water,” said Kemper.

For City Park, a new outdoor restaurant in Fayetteville, this marks its third week opened for business. Normal hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and they’re open to 11 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Now hours are from 5-10 p.m. for Wednesday and Thursday.

General manager of City Park Brittany Berk says since the hot temperatures started last week, they’ve seen less people than before.

“We haven’t had many guests come in during the lunch shifts and, you know, starting today or closing during lunch because it’s just so hot,” said Berk.