Cuomo to allow NYC indoor dining to return Feb. 14, large weddings in March

ALBANY, N.Y. — Lovestruck diners are in luck after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that restaurants in New York City can once again serve customers indoors starting on Valentine’s Day.

Amid a post-holiday decline in COVID cases and hospitalizations, the governor said that Big Apple eateries will be allowed to reopen their doors with a strict 25% capacity limit as long as numbers continue to decline.

“Twenty-five percent is better than zero, and that’s where we are now,” Cuomo said during a press briefing from Albany. “If hell develops and the sky falls and a new variant explodes onto the scene, then we’ll have the opposite problem.”

The governor noted that New York City’s positivity rate has dropped from a high of 7.1% on Jan. 5 to just below 5% as of Jan. 28, a good indicator that the city has rounded a curve.

“All the models project that number to continue to drop,” he said.

Cuomo also announced that the state will also allow wedding receptions to resume in March at 50% venue capacity or a maximum of 150 people. Events must also be approved by the local health department.

Despite the good news for eateries and lovebirds, the governor warned that things can change at anytime, noting that while vaccinations continue, there are concerns about highly contagious COVID strains and the still-rising death toll, which included another 151 New Yorkers.

“We make decisions based on facts, and based on the numbers, New York City numbers are down,” he said during a briefing in Albany. “But facts change. It sounds inconsistent. We like to think a fact is always a fact. No, facts change. COVID facts change dramatically, and they change often.

“If there are facts, and the facts change, we will have a different situation,” he said.

Cuomo barred indoor dining in the five boroughs in December as COVID-19 cases spiked. Struggling eateries were forced to offer takeout or outdoor seating throughout the holiday season. The shutdown followed a brief two-month reprieve that saw dining rooms open at 25% capacity during the fall.

The announcement was a quick turnaround for the governor, who just days earlier said he was “not contemplating” reversing the current ban on serving customers inside.

While restaurants upstate remain capped at 50% capacity, the governor said earlier in the week he’s not ready to lift a 10 p.m. curfew that applies statewide to establishments that serve alcohol, arguing that late-night revelry could become a problem.

“That is something we’re looking at, but not at this time,” he said Wednesday. “When you keep the restaurants open late that tends to be more problematic, tends to be more crowded, tends to be more drinking.”

Earl Greer, who has owned the Hi-Life bar and restaurant on Amsterdam and W. 83rd Street since 1991, already had Valentine’s Day circled on his calendar before Cuomo’s announcement.

“We are happy to have some indoor dining back,” Greer said. “I think Valentine’s Day may have been selected because it’s a cute day to open. I think if it’s safe, let’s open a week sooner than that. We’ll make the best of it. We’re going to have a jazz saxophonist on the street. The theme will be love is in the air and some love will be happening indoors now, too.”

La Sirene owner Benjamin Cosso, 32, would like Cuomo to move the target date up a couple of weeks. He said his French bistro, on the corner of Amsterdam Ave. and W. 80th Street, could certainly use the business.

“Every improvement is good,” Cosso said. “We wish it’d be earlier than that. It’s good it happened on Valentine’s Day. We are hoping for a crowd.”

Tanya Lort, 29, manager at Senn Thai restaurant on Amsterdam near W. 82nd Street, said most residents in the neighborhood prefer to eat outside these days.

“They feel uncomfortable to sit indoors,” she said. “Maybe this time when they allow indoor dining more people will come in. It’s a lot colder now.”

Before Cuomo’s announcement Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed concerns about how new COVID variants that spread more easily might affect the reopening of in-person dining in the city.

“We’re in an uncertain situation because of the new variants, because we don’t yet have all of the supply of vaccine we should, but I also know and I really feel that the folks who are trying to make a livelihood, trying to save their businesses, you know, they’re struggling,” he said. “So the whole idea here is to try and strike the right balance. I know the governor’s trying to do it.”

Melissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, applauded the move, but said more must be done to assist business owners who have faced nearly a year of financial hardship.

“While these are small steps toward reopening the economy, allowing shuttered businesses to welcome back customers is a step in the right direction, nonetheless,” she said. “We will keep doing our part to keep our employees and diners safe so we can continue to make progress toward a full reopening as soon as possible.”