NEW YORK EATERY’S SNEAK PEEK AT POST CORONAVIRUS DINING

NEW YORK: As shut-in Americans long for the days when they can once again enjoy simple pleasures like dining out, one New York City steakhouse has provided a possible glimpse of how reopened restaurants might look in the postcoronavirus age. When the Brooklyn Chop House reopens in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District this summer, diners will encounter temperature checks at the door, plastic dividers between tables, sanitizer-infused towels, and wait staff wearing restaurant-branded fishing caps with plastic face shields. “We created a fishing cap to make it a little fun, because

I’ve got to convince my staff to wear it, and it’s actually very comfortable,” said Stratis Morfogen, the restaurant’s director of operations, as he donned a face shield. As the Covid-19 pandemic swept the United States, restaurants closed their doors, with 5.5 million restaurant industry workers losing their jobs in April alone, according to the National Restaurant Association. The virus hit New York establishments especially hard, where, the industry group says, restaurants accounted for 9% of employment in the state in 2019 and brought in

$51.6 billion in sales in 2018. The Brooklyn Chop House, known for its fusion of American steakhouse and Asian food, is working hard to prepare for reopening and Morfogen estimates the changes will cost $15,000.