New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Restaurant owners: Capacity rule to boost consumer confidence — but won’t save us
Just over a year after the first COVID-19 related restaurant shutdowns, Connecticut restaurants will no longer have a limit on seating capacity. But with required spacing between tables, owners are unsure the change will have a major effect on business.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday that the state would remove most requirements for businesses beginning March 19, but some restrictions will still remain in place.
Though the new guidelines remove a capacity limit on seating, diners must still wear masks and practice social distancing. Tables must be spaced six feet apart or have non-porous barriers between seats.
As restaurants have been limited to 50 percent capacity since early November, owners — beleaguered from a year of stress and strain — welcomed the changes, seeing it as a step toward normalcy. Others said the removal of limits wouldn’t make much of a difference to their bottom
line, and urged the state to understand that they would continue to struggle.
“To be clear, there is still much work to be done before Connecticut and its restaurants are at full strength,” said Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
“Before the pandemic, restaurants accounted for more than 160,000 jobs in our state. To get back to that point, the state will need to fully lift the curfew, limits on table sizes and more. It can do it safely by maintaining social distancing and mask rules, along with other safety precautions.”
“It all depends on how the restaurant is laid out in terms of their physical footprint and their ability or willingness to use the Plexiglas, the dividers that we also allow,” said David Lehman, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development at the governor’s news conference Thursday.
“For certain restaurants — and I can't give a definitive number — relaxing the capacity restriction is where they've been. But for other restaurants, they will be able to increase their capacity.”
Lehman also alluded to consumer confidence building as the state’s COVID numbers continue to improve.
“As we see vaccinations go up and virus transmission and hospitalizations go down, the consumer is going to be more confident and more willing to go to that restaurant.”
Restaurateurs across Connecticut weighed in on the decision Thursday, with mixed feelings on how it would impact the state’s struggling industry.
Michael Marchetti: Columbus Park Trattoria in Stamford; Applausi Osteria in Old Greenwich; Tarantino in Westport
“This is all good stuff. We’re heading in the right direction,” Marchetti said.
Marchetti has six-foot spacing between tables at his restaurants in Stamford and Old Greenwich, and Plexiglass dividers at his Westport restaurant. He said he might not be able to fit many more people in the Stamford dining room, and possibly just a few more guests in his private dining room.
But he was still thrilled by the announcement, saying will help boost consumer confidence.
“The overwhelming [thought] from my industry is that this is excellent news,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier...it’s all just building blocks.”
Jason Sobocinski: Olmo, Ordinary, Haven Hot Chicken and Bear’s Smokehouse at the Stack, New Haven
“It’s great to have the capacity, but our square footage is our square footage,” Sobocinski said. “With [6-foot spacing], will it make a big difference, I guess is the question.”
But like Marchetti, he said the governor’s announcement would help send a message that restaurant dining was safe in the current climate.
“I think the difference for everybody is going to be that it creates more confidence. And that's huge,” he said. “Because if we can get more people to say, ‘yeah, it's safer,’ and we can get more business, that to me is what it’s all about.”
Sobocinski co-owns Haven Hot Chicken in the Elm City, which currently only offers takeout and delivery. But he said he and his partners are looking at opening a second location, and they’d be keeping seating capacity in mind as they look for space.
Mark Turocy: Black Rock Social House, Bridgeport
Turocy’s new restaurant is slated for a March 15 debut in Bridgeport’s Black Rock neighborhood. Tables and chairs are already spaced out with the required distancing, or with partitions.
“But I’m literally maxed out in my space right now at 50 percent, because of that distancing,” he said.
Turocy said he hopes the state understands that removing capacity limits doesn’t mean a restaurant can operate at 100 percent.
“It’s not going to be normal until the 6-foot [spacing] is gone,” he said. “I understand why it’s there. I agree with it. But I just want to make sure the state understands that it doesn’t mean you’re on all cylinders again.”
As a brand-new restaurant owner, Turocy isn’t eligible for funding, like the Paycheck Protection Act. “I have nothing to fall back on on. It’s all on me,” he said.
Jillian Moskites: Whey Station(ary), Middletown
Removal of capacity limits would add “very minimal” seating at her Main Street restaurant specializing in grilled cheese, Moskites said. “But we haven’t even needed full capacity. We haven’t had a wait. People aren’t eating out.”
Moskites said she’s worried about people’s longerterm habits, and whether it will take a while for diners to get over any trepidation about eating indoors.
“We’ve had a year, and people’s habits are drastically different,” she said. “I feel like I don’t know how quickly it’s going to go back to where we’re actually making money, and people aren’t fearful.”
Moskites and her husband, Josh, got their start as the Whey Station food truck. By this time of year, they’re normally planning dozens of events as summer approaches, but the uncertainty of the season has left them up in the air. They normally vend at Hartford’s Xfinity Theatre, she said, but if there are limits on guests at stadiums and venues, she isn’t sure if food trucks will be invited to events.
Rich Reyes: Mecha Noodle Bar (Fairfield, Norwalk, New Haven, Stamford, West Hartford) and Pho Vietnam and Mariposa Taqueria (Danbury)
Reyes, whose restaurant group operates eateries in three Connecticut counties, said he welcomes the news, as it makes a “big difference” in the mind of the consumer.
“I think it's important for restaurants to continue making progress for normalization,” he said. “So I think once you send that signal, that everything else is normalizing and restaurants are too, you kind of help that ‘restaurants are not safe’ ideology that has been out in the world.”
Reyes said he’s been seeing more older diners coming back to his restaurants after receiving vaccines, especially at Mariposa in Danbury, which had an older demographic in its previous format as Mezon Tapas.