“It was a half block from my house. I raised my three kids there. I had the same staff in the kitchen for over a decade. I made some of my best friends through that place.”

That’s how Blair Papagni describes the loss of one of her restaurants, Jimmy’s Diner, located in Brooklyn.

It’s one of thousands of bars and restaurants in the city that have gone out of business since the pandemic erupted.

What You Need To Know

  • NYC Hospitality Alliance says thousands of restaurants, bars in the city have already gone out of business

  • Restaurant, bar owners say resuming indoor dining soon is crucial to their survival

  • About 200,000 thousand people in the restaurant and bar industry in the city have lost their jobs

  • A survey of 500 restaurant and bar owners found 83% could not pay their full rent last month

Industry leaders say about 200,000 people who work in bars and restaurants in the city have already lost their jobs. They predict more layoffs and closures if the city and state don’t step up to further ease restrictions on their operations.

“I still pay rent at pre-COVID rates and I also pay down business loans. It’s difficult, it’s stressful and it’s scary,“ said restaurant owner George Constantinou. 

Restaurant and bar owners are now urging the mayor and the governor to come up with a plan for when and how indoor dining will reopen in the city. They say it makes no sense that indoor dining has been allowed in other parts of the state for two months now, but not in the five boroughs, where the city has met, sustained and even exceeded the metrics that allowed indoor dining everywhere else.

“Why can you eat indoors in Yonkers, in Westchester County, but you can’t eat indoors 100 yards down the street in the Bronx? “ asked Andrew Rigie, executive director of NYC Hospitality Alliance.

The city says it’s being extra cautious with because of what is happening with COVID infections in other parts of the country that have resumed indoor dining.

Governor Cuomo says comparing the city with the rest of the state is absurd.

“They're different demographically, they're different by population, they're different by density, they're different by crowding factor,“ explained Cuomo.

Restaurant  owners say outdoor dining is only a temporary lifeline, not a solution, especially with the cold weather approaching. Without a plan for indoor dining, many of them say they face an uncertain future with tough decisions ahead.

“They need to decide whether or not they are going to have to turn in their keys, if they are going to continue to exhaust their personal savings with the hopes of one day being able to reopen,“ said Rigie.