Chris Giannakas closes his Astoria restaurant Ovelia every Monday and Tuesday.

The fourteen year family business used to be open seven days a week, but the pandemic changed that.


What You Need To Know

  • Governor Cuomo warned that indoor dining could close in New York City as soon as next Monday if coronavirus hospitalizations don’t stabilize

  • Restaurant owners and workers say they don't know how they'll survive without indoor dinning and financial relief from the government

  • National Restaurant Association says 10,000 more American restaurants could close in the next three weeks


"We figured if we could just close the restaurant two days out of the week. It would be enough for us to keep everyone on payroll," said Giannakas.

Since March, Giannakas says he has not been able to turn a profit. He keeps trying to adapt.

But his investments to enable outdoor dining have only pushed the business deeper in debt.

"Its like a constant trying to figure out where you are at now and how and try to balance yourself on this shifting ground. It is unparalleled," he said.

Giannakas' says he is not surprised the National Restaurant Association is now warning that 10,000 more restaurants could close in the next three weeks.

He says without indoor dinning and no help from the government, Ovelia could be one of them, especially with the state warning that it might ban all indoor dining again.

"If we do not get some sort of bail out. It is probably a wrap. And I am not talking about we will survive, I am talking about we will probably be closed by the holidays or like in January or February, we are talking about immediate."

A few miles away, Christine McGovern is pouring a Guinness behind the bar at Donovan's Pub in Woodside where she has worked for six years.

She said the last several months have been tough enough. If indoor dinning is halted again, she doesn’t know what she'll do.

"I have two teenage kids and how am I going to look at them and say there isn’t any money coming in, there is nothing coming in. How are we suppose to pay bills? How are people eat? How are we suppose to survive," said McGovern.

She says this time of year is normally busy with holiday parties. But most nights Donovans is quiet. Most tables are empty and customers are not allowed to sit at the bar. She says she normally just receives shift pay with few tips.

Officials say that a halt in indoor dining might be needed to stop the spread of COVID-19.

McGovern says the restaurant has gone above and beyond to keep everyone safe, and that taking away indoor dinning would unfairly hurt a business already struggling to survive.

"We have followed these rules and we are being punished for it," she said.