Indoor dining not yet on menu

Mayor de Blasio bluntly said he has “no plan” for the return of indoor dining in New York City, citing a link between eating inside and a resurgence of the coronavirus in other parts of the world.

“Indoor dining, there’s not a plan right now,” de Blasio said on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” Friday.

A Manhattan caller named Sharon had asked the mayor if there was any possibility that restaurants would be fully reopened this year. Right now, they’re only allowed to have outdoor seating or takeout.

“There’s not a context for indoor dining,” de Blasio said. “We’re never saying it’s impossible. But we do not, based on what we’re seeing around the world, we do not have a plan for reopening indoor dining in the near term.”

He cited COVID-19 resurgences in Hong Kong and Europe linked to the activity.

Andrew Rigie, head of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, was infuriated.

“It’s jaw-dropping that there’s no plan for the more than 25,000 eating and drinking places and 300,000 workers in our city,” Rigie said.

“If there’s no plan to reopen in the near term while the rest of the state is open indoors, what’s the plan to support New York City’s small businesses and workers while they’re shut? Where’s the rent relief ?” Rigie asked.

Jake Dell, owner of Katz’s Delicatessen on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, predicted “a lot of places are going to go under without any sort of path forward.”

“It would be nice to at least know what the game plan is,” Dell said.

Only about 10,000 of the city’s 25,000 dining establishments are participating in the city’s outdoor dining program, and even with that, 83 percent couldn’t pay their full rent last month, according to a survey by Rigie’s group.