NYC Indoor Dining Reopens On Valentine’s Day, Cuomo Says

NEW YORK CITY — New York City restaurants and gourmands will get a Valentine’s Day gift from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Indoor dining in the city will reopen Feb. 14 at 25 percent capacity, Cuomo said. The city’s current coronavirus levels’ downward trajectory will make it possible, he said.

“On our current trajectory, we can reopen indoor dining at 25 percent on Valentine’s Day,” he said.

Reopening indoor dining has been long-wished for by New York City’s struggling restaurant industry. The city’s restaurateurs have watched their neighbors across the state open their doors to diners, while Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been chilly toward the idea of reopening indoor dining in the Big Apple.

De Blasio said Friday the city will follow whatever reopening guidance Cuomo gives.

Cuomo did leave the door open for keeping indoor dining off the table. He hinted that reopening depended on New York City’s current COVID-19 levels continuing to drop.

The positivity rate in the city stands at 4.9 percent, by the state’s measurement, and experts project it will continue to drop, Cuomo said.

Andrew Rigie, executive director of NYC Hospitality Alliance, welcomed the reopening with some significant caveats.

“However, restaurants are broken hearted that they need to wait two weeks until Valentine’s Day to open at only 25% occupancy in the city, while permitting 50% occupancy in dining rooms around the rest of the state where infections and hospitalization rates from COVID-19 are higher,” he said in statement. “Restaurants in the city are ready to safely open now. Unfortunately, once again the state’s standards are being applied inequitably in the five boroughs without a transparent and data-driven system for further reopening the city’s restaurant economy. These actions raise legal and moral concerns and extend unique economic challenges on the city’s battered restaurants and bars, which shed more than 140,000 jobs over the past year due to the pandemic and related restrictions.”

Cuomo said restaurants requested a “period of time” before the reopening to notify workers, buy supplies and otherwise prepare. He didn’t budge on the 25 percent capacity.

“Twenty-five percent is better than 0 and that’s where we are now,” he said. “If the numbers continue to get better, that number will go up.”