Cuomo says indoor dining not on the menu yet for NYC
It looks as if New Yorkers will have to wait a little longer to book a table inside their favorite restaurant.
As states across the U.S. experience an alarming surge of COVID-19 cases after reopening their bars and restaurants, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that officials are slowing down the restart of indoor dining in New York City.
“Around the country, a number of cities and states have been moving in the wrong direction,” de Blasio said this past week. “We all love indoor dining, but we see problems with indoor dining.”
Cuomo tweeted on Sunday that “indoor dining will remain closed.”
The delay will be another blow to the city’s beleaguered restaurant industry, which had been gearing up for weeks to reopen today. Its roughly 27,000 establishments have struggled to survive on takeout food and drink orders and, starting last week, limited outdoor seating since the pandemic began.
Here’s what restaurateurs across the city had to say about the news.
Emil Stefanov, general manager at Boucherie in the West Village:
“Yes, all the restaurants will be suffering, but safety and health comes first. You’ll have no business if you have no people to have business with. Everything else goes after that. So if they tell us they’re postponing the resumption of indoor dining, I won’t think how bad it is for my business, I’ll think about how bad the situation is getting. In New York, I feel safe with the leadership. If they feel that it’s not safe to go to Phase Three, then who am I to say no? Businesses will come back eventually. Safety of people comes first.”
Ivy Mix, co-owner of Leyenda in Cobble Hill:
“We weren’t planning to open up in indoor dining even if approval went through, so we strongly agree. We don’t think NYC is ready just yet for indoor dining. We fortunately have front and back patios at our small bar, Leyenda, and have been making that work and offering to-go cocktails. It’s not great, but we’re surviving.
“Having folks pass through masked to get to the back patio or use the restrooms is one thing, but the thought of friends gathered at a table without masks seems like a risk we would not feel comfortable taking right now.”
Dan Kluger, chef-owner of Loring Place in Greenwich Village:
“I wouldn’t say I was psyched about this news. We just started to hire people back. Now we’re pissing them off because we’ve made offers to people who didn’t want to get off unemployment, where they’re making more money. But they said yes. I hired another manager, I hired back a sous chef to help us be ready for indoor dining. Made offers to cooks and porters and servers.
“I have no problem with the government saying we can’t reopen, but they can’t change the message the week before. I’m taking on more payroll than I need to. I can’t survive until October. I understand the reasons why, but no one is communicating properly. I’ll be lucky if I make $1,000 off of outdoor dining this week. That’s how discouraging it is.”
Nate Adler, co-owner of Gertie in Williamsburg:
“The most important consideration right now is a potential second surge of infections coming to NYC, which would push many restaurants to a point of no return. With that in mind, I have always been of the opinion that a slower, more gradual reopening is the better way. Let’s stay the course, while the weather is warm enough to dine outside and until the virus is better contained. Opening restaurants indoors at 50% capacity has the potential to do more damage than good.”
George Vavilis, owner of Morning Star Cafe in midtown Manhattan:
“How much am I counting on Phase Three reopening and inside dining? Zero. I told all my employees, if it happens on July 6, that’s great, but chances are equally high it’s not going to happen then. How can I control that? There’s no way. So I need to count on what I can control. Up to last week, it was takeout and delivery that I could control. Then, it was putting the barriers in place last week, and making sure every guest is safe. When they tell me that Phase Three is happening, then I’ll start counting that in.
“Don’t get me wrong, that would be ideal, I want it to happen, but I don’t keep my hopes up. We have 60 seats inside, but even if we could use a quarter of that, that would be better than nothing. But safety comes first. I don’t want to get sick, and I don’t want to get any of my guests sick.”