NYC restaurants are allowed to dine indoors today
Starting today, restaurants in NYC are allowed to reopen for indoor dining at 25 percent capacity, following a two-month ban imposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo last December. It is the second time that the city’s restaurants have been allowed to open dining halls with limited capacity during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, there are differing opinions on how to cope with the final return to in-house dining. Some owners are grateful for any loosening of operating restrictions and look forward to offering a handful of seats to customers, others choose to take a wait and see approach before reopening their own establishment, and still others are from plans not to reopen until COVID-19 vaccinations have become more widespread.
For the sites that reopen, the same COVID-19 precautions will be taken during this round as last fall. Customers must have their temperature checked at the door and comply with contact tracing measures. The 10 PM curfew in New York is still in effect, despite protests from some restaurant owners. Cuomo has indicated that if the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the city continues to decline, capacity restrictions could be further relaxed. Outside of NYC, restaurants are currently allowed to operate indoors at 50 percent capacity.
Update, 1:00 PM: Cuomo has announced that the curfew for restaurants and bars in New York will be extended to 11 p.m. starting Feb. 14.
In other news
– Lotus + Cleaver at the Jacx & Co dining room in Long Island City is offering a special prosperity Chinese New Year salad ($ 28) available for pickup February 12-19. The salad, meant to be thrown along with others to bring good luck, includes salmon sashimi, home-marinated ikura, oishii shrimp, shredded vegetables, and homemade pickles, among other ingredients. The salad must be ordered at least 24 hours in advance.
– Bedford + Bowery will head to the College Student Pantry on the Lower East Side, where anyone with a college number can shop every other Wednesday from 3pm to 5pm
– Brooklyn Fare luxury grocery store is planning a massive 21,600-square-foot store on the Upper West Side to open this summer, Commercial Observer reports.
– According to EV Grieve, Essex Market’s tough Davidovich Bakery appears to be opening a new location in the East Village.
– Pearl River Mart Foods and Very Fresh Noodles at Chelsea Market have teamed up to offer a great Chinese New Year celebration on Saturday, February 13. Each $ 150 ticket includes a meal for four with La Mei Taiwanese beef noodle soup from Very Fresh Noodles, spicy pork and yubu kimbap buns from Kimbap Lab, a variety of steamed bao from Mao’s Bao, and more. The meal – served in the private outdoor heated booths of Chelsea Market – is accompanied by a performance by Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute Dragon and Lion Dance Team. According to a spokesperson, customers will also receive “a special New Year’s gift” from Pearl River Mart. There are two seats for the meal and the show, on Saturdays at noon and 2:30 PM.
– The family bakery Ceremonia Bakeshop in Williamsburg will reopen on February 13 with a new passion fruit raspberry cake on the menu.
– Hot Bread Kitchen will host a Valentine’s Day Zoom cooking class on February 14 at noon, where participants make cornbread and collards eggs Benedict with Cornbread26, a local catering company. The price of tickets ranges from free to $ 30 each, with all proceeds going to Cornbread26.
– Happy Lunar New Year!