Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced that the return of indoor dining in New York City is off the table indefinitely when it comes to the comes to the city’s coronavirus reopening plan.
At Ramen Thukpa on 7th Avenue South in Greenwich Village, owner Thupten Pema has set up three small tables outside, which hold a maximum of six people.
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When NY1 asked how much business has gone, the response was dire:
Pema: Oh, it’s like 70-80 percent down.
NY1: But your rent stays the same?
Pema: Your rent stays the same.
When it comes to ramen, the owner of Ramen Thukpa says his customers prefer to dine indoors, estimating 80 percent of his business came from sit-down service.
But with the city announcing Wednesday that indoor dining would be postponed indefinitely, Pema, who has owned this restaurant for the past eight years. fears his small business, with room for 33 seats inside, may not survive.
“I don’t know if we can stay longer,” Pema says, “if they keep postponing.”
De Blasio and Cuomo said they were indefinitely postponing the resumption of indoor dining because of the resurgence of the coronavirus in states that have allowed restaurants to fully reopen.
“Indoors is the problem,” said the mayor. “The science is showing it more and more.”
“This is a New York City-only modification because, frankly,” said Gov. Cuomo, “it is a problem that is most pronounced in New York City.”
With indoor dining now temporarily off the table, the mayor says he will double down on outdoor dining, expanding his "Open Restaurants" initiative, by providing more temporary space for outdoor eating in streets and on sidewalks.
Some restaurateurs, like the owner of Taco Mahal, were not keen on the idea of indoor dining.
“We weren’t going to allow the customers to eat indoors anyway, just for the safety of our employees and for them as well,” says owner Dannikah Josan. “If this continues into the winter, we’re still going to remain closed indoors.”
Workers at Blind Tiger say a year ago, their bar and restaurant would easily reach capacity of 74 people. Their outdoor space holds just 27 people.
One worker says while the delay to indoor dining will hurt business, safety is more important.
“Mixed feelings definitely the way to describe it,” says Luke Manson, who has worked at Blind Tiger for several years. “It’s gonna hurt a lot of the restaurants in town. It’s gonna hurt us. It’s gonna hurt everybody, to have less capacity, but looking at what’s going on across the country it seems like the right decision.”
Meantime, Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, says the decision to postpone indoor dining “makes it even more urgent to forgive rent, expand outdoor dining and enact other responsive policies to save our city’s beloved small businesses and jobs.”
The city is slated to enter Phase Three this coming Monday.
The mayor says small businesses services and the Department of Transportation will be out in communities to educate qualifying restaurants on how they can take advantage of outdoor space.
During his daily briefing Wednesday, Cuomo said indoor dining had to be tabled due to a "lack of compliance" by citizens and law enforcement.
"Phase Three dining, we are going to postpone. And it’s going to be postponed until the facts change and it is prudent," said Cuomo. "But we do have a problem in New York City. And, again, it’s partially the other states going up and we’re worried about that. And it’s partially lack of citizen compliance and lack of local government compliance enforcement.”
Cuomo said the state will create its own enforcement department to supplement local enforcement. But he stressed they don't have the resources. So, he said, local authorities need to step up to the plate and people need to comply with the guidelines.
The governor also announced New York state is expanding all testing criteria to test all residents.
Across the state Tuesday, there were 11 coronavirus-related deaths and just under 900 hospitalizations.
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