On September 30, restaurants in New York City were permitted to reopen for indoor dining for the first time in more than six months.
Restaurants are required to limit capacity to 25% of the maximum occupancy, ensure that employees are wearing face coverings at all times, perform temperature checks, ask guests to wear face coverings except when seated, space tables at least six feet apart, and refrain from seating more than 10 people at a table at a time. Indoor bar service is still not permitted.
The reopening of indoor dining comes at a desparate time for the city's restaurant industry. For many, relying on takeout and outdoor dining hasn't been enough to recover from the shutdowns imposed in March.
In September, Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that New York City will allow restaurants to continue operating outdoor seating indefinitely. Still, outdoor dining and limited indoor dining is hardly a silver bullet for New York's beleaguered restaurant industry. Many restaurants don't turn a profit unless their dining rooms are full or mostly full.
According to a recent report from the Office of the New York State Comptroller, New York City's restaurant industry employment is only at 55% of what it was in February, before the pandemic hit.
The report also estimated that between one-third and one-half of the city's restaurants and bars could close permanently due to the pandemic's pressure on the business. If 50% of the city's bars and restaurants closed, that would mean the loss of nearly 12,000 establishments and almost 159,000 jobs.
Here is what some of Manhattan's restaurants looked like as they reopened to indoor business on Wednesday: