Now serving at 75 percent
Restaurants usher in first day of Phase 3 dining restrictions
Ansonia’s Judy Poirier started dining inside again within the last month, when it was too hot and sunny outside.
She hasn’t felt uncomfortable with indoor dining so far, and she and her friend Marion Anastas, of Southbury, have been coming to Johana’s Restaurant in New Milford for years to eat lunch, as they did Thursday. With restaurants able to expand their capacities up to 75 percent starting Thursday, Poirier said she’ll “see what happens with that.”
“[Restaurants] want to comply with it,” said Anastas, a 71-year-old retired registered nurse. “I think that they’re going to do OK.”
Thursday marked the rollout of some indoor capacity increases in Connecticut as the state ushers in Phase 3. Restaurants can now seat up to 75 percent of their indoor capacity, provided they follow state rules requiring six feet of distance from one set of customers to the next. though they can be closer if “non-porous barriers” are in place.
Angel Salinas, the owner of Johana’s Restaurant, said business has been “tough.” Indoor dining isn’t what it used to be yet, he said, but since people know they have the place “nice and clean,” they’re open to coming inside. New customers can be more hesitant though, he added.
Still, he’s worried about the winter months creeping in when outdoor dining isn’t an option.
“We all are,” he said. “Winter’s coming, nobody wants to sit outside, and then inside, you know, people are still scared.”
At The Cookhouse Restaurant, Wingdale, N.Y., resident Mary Mordarski celebrated her 73rd birthday over a Texas burger inside with her sisters. Though she cooks at home “most of the time,” she thought expanding the indoor capacity was “fantastic.”
“It’s almost election time, you wait and see after the election, it’ll be gone,” she said of the coronavirus.
A couple of booths down, Scott Chamberlain, was a “little nervous” about the increase in indoor dining capacity.
The 66-year-old lawyer has been eating inside “much less” that he normally would, opting to get takeout instead.
“I think that the more you can stay away from other people, the better off you are,” he said.
Cookhouse manager Curt Borkin said they erected partitions a few days ago to increase the seating they could offer to customers — with the rule requiring groups to be six feet apart; it was “difficult” to increase capacity otherwise.
The chef arranged getting the dividers “pretty easily,” he said, adding they cost about $50 per booth.
“Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to even increase it,” said Borkin, a New Milford resident. “I’m imagining other places are going to run into the same issue.”
Down Route 7 in New Milford at DinerLuxe, they’re “really excited” about amping up their indoor seating, daytime manager Kim Reed said. While much of the industry is “bleeding out” right now, they’ve kept going and are hiring five new employees, she said.
Since Monday, the number of people inquiring about sitting inside has been going up, she said.
“They hear the news, but they don’t know,” she said. “We still get people like, ‘Are you seating inside? Are you seating inside?’ We’re like, ‘Yes you guys, of course.’ ”
At the Abbey Restaurant in New Milford, they’re not trying to get partitions yet because they have enough space, owner Francis McCabe said, but he suspects they “probably will” get them at some point. Last weekend when it was cold, they saw a “nice crowd inside,” he said.
“It’s slowly, definitely picking up,” he said.
Sherman residents Matt and Barbara Romano sat outside at The Abbey on Thursday, sipping a piña colada and a white sangria at a sunny corner table. Matt Romano said he supports indoor dining capacity going up to 75 percent, “as long as it’s regulated.”
Romano said he has dined indoors during the pandemic before, and he’d do it again. His comfort level in doing so would depend on the place and whether people are following the restrictions and wearing masks.
But, “I wish things would get back to normal,” he said.