Indoor Dining in NYC. A Tale of 2 Scrooges

No matter who you listen to looks like Scrooge is running the city for this holiday season.

Mayor Big Bird says he is in no rush to allow indoor dining. Apparently it will be sometime in January. He seemed to be saying it will be a long long time before there is indoor dining. By than it won't much matter as if his intent was to crush the city economy he will have succeeded.

Cuomo piled on by saying he wants to see numbers go lower,and some other demented reasoning. Between the 2 the original goal of containment has been reached. For some reason they will not be content until the economy of NYC will have been ground into the dirt. Is it any wonder people are fleeing the city in droves.

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Ahhh yer mudder rides a vaccum cleaner!

It is true that Lurch said there won't be any indoor dining this coming quarter, but understand our numbers are so incredibly low (which is a good thing), and Cuomo simply wants to get them to zero. Again, other states? F*cked. We did the work, Cuomo continues to kick ass, and he gets the final word with dining. But, I do worry because it gets cold outside really soon.

Roxy, don't you live in Long Island?

For the love of god, order takeout and get a life.

"By than it won't much matter as if his intent was to crush the city economy he will have succeeded."

It wasn't. The intent was to stop millions from dying.

Yeah it's hard. Yeah it sucks. Yeah we've lost places and activities we love.

I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that 3000 investment bankers (and the people of color janitorial and security staff) were killed in the twin towers attack in 2001 and there's an ENORMOUS expensive museum that once sold a somber memorial cheese cutting board in its gift shop in the shape of the US with big red stars where terrorist planes crashed.

But 180,000 US citizens dead in about 6 months of covid? Ho hum. It's some sort of liberal plot to kill the economy? Come on. Where's their museum? Where's their reflecting pool? Where is their cheese cutting board? I do not understand what gets prioritized in this culture.

Why was 9/11 a "never forget" and Covid a "try not to acknowledge?"

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Updated On: 9/2/20 at 01:58 AM

Yeah, a vaccine or June 1st, 2021, whichever comes first. But, most NYC restaurants will have to close if this continues until next year, during the Winter. Every other part of NY allows it and now Jersey is starting to open them back up, it's really sad that people will have to travel outside of NYC to hang out in a restaurant for months to come.

My wife and I have eaten out at a few restaurants in NC (indoor & outdoor) and have been fine. Every place all people working have masks on and my wife and I wore ours until we were seated. Servers bringing your food on plates had gloves on. The tables were socially distant due to the limited capacity allowed. The normal menus have been replaced, some places had paper menu and another had limited menu on big white board near every table. There was no cash payment allowed, credit card only. I think dining out can be done properly, you just need to check out and see how particular restaurant is handling the situation.

"Thanks for the story, Yankee, I was wondering how things are going down in NC. Personally, I don't want to eat out at a restaurant where people have gloves and masks on. I think going to dinner is special and it just seems too depressing. I've been supporting them with take out the entire time when I was quarantined in Maine and now back in the city. There has not been any huge outbreaks at restaurants (in the entire state of NY), so it's not as risky as having a massive indoor wedding or a bitchin rager at a college. It is fine if done right, but considering what NYC went through in early Spring, I completely understand their logic. This is a good article on the subject on NY Mag Lin"

My wife and I have been doing takeout a bunch also to support the places we enjoy going to for many years. Sadly, our favorite Italian restaurant in Charlotte NC closed up due to the virus after 25 years and it made us very sad. It was family owned business and we started going there when our daughters were little and taking dance classes right around the corner from the place. Personally, I think we are going to see restaurant workers wearing masks for a long time. Thanks for the article.

Updated On: 9/3/20 at 08:30 AM

Agree on everything you said, Kad. I really don't think the government is going to help them out, because it's clear they don't care if small businesses or people survive through this whole thing.

So today BLAH-SIO said he will announce something about indoor dining this month and it could be "as soon as tomorrow". He has flip flopped in this issue so much it's crazy. People want a definitive answer, and I truly hope he gives them one. But it's him so.....

Roxy, please move to the Adirondacks. I think you would enjoy the quiet and the abundance of moose.

When it gets cold, restaurants will have to rely on take out. Warmer states will be able to keep the outside open. Maybe we will see more heat lamps in NY.

SmoothLover said: "When it gets cold,restaurants will have to rely on take out. Warmer states will be able to keep the outside open. Maybe we will see more heat lamps in NY."

Some restaurants here in Jersey said they have gotten heat lamps. A restaurant near me said they are looking at an outdoor enclosure with air flow.

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uncageg said: "SmoothLover said: "When it gets cold,restaurants will have to rely on take out. Warmer states will be able to keep the outside open. Maybe we will see more heat lamps in NY."

Some restaurants here in Jersey said they have gotten heat lamps. A restaurant near me said they are looking at an outdoor enclosure with air flow."

I've read in some reporting that there are only a few heat lamps that meet NY fire code and they are very costly. I would assume most restaurant owners will be very wary of throwing even more money at this.

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Miles2Go2 said: "I’m in Oklahoma and haven’t eaten out since March. Only delivery, drive-up or drive-thru or of course cook at home. Our cases haven’t even come close to NY’s, but cases are trending upward again.

Having said that, I will admit I broke into a huge sobbing fit when I learned that due to the pandemic, AquaGrill (one of my favorite places whenever I visited NYC) would not be reopening."

The Times said a few months ago that 1200 restaurants had closed for good in NYC. No telling what that number is now. They have also written several articles on chains that are pulling out since tourists keep them afloat. This includes chain retail stores as well. NY 1 says that permanent restaurant closures in all boroughs is over a few thousand.

CNN says 2/3 of Ny restaurants could permanently close by December and there could be an 80% US rate of permanent closures.

Updated On: 9/7/20 at 02:40 AM