New York restaurants can resume indoor dining today
As of today, restaurants in New York can reopen for indoor dining with a 25% capacity, following a two-month ban instituted by Governor Andrew Cuomo last December. It is the second time that restaurants in the city are allowed to open dining rooms with limited capacity during the pandemic. It is not surprising that there are many differing opinions on how to deal with the latest return to indoor meals. Some owners are grateful for any loosening of operational restrictions and hope to offer a handful of seats to customers, others are choosing to wait and see before reopening their own establishments, and still others plan not to reopen until COVID 19 vaccinations have been more widely distributed.
For vacancies that are being reopened, the same COVID-19 precautions will be in effect during this round as last fall. Customers must have their temperatures checked at the door and comply with contact tracking measures. The 22:00 New York dinner curfew is still in effect, despite protests from some restaurant owners. Cuomo indicated that if the rate of positive cases of COVID-19 continues to decrease in the city, capacity restrictions may be further relaxed. Outside New York, restaurants are currently allowed to operate at 50% of internal capacity.
Update, 13:00: Cuomo announced that the curfew for New York restaurants and bars will be extended until 11pm, starting on February 14th.
In other news
– Lotus + Cleaver in the Jacx & Co cafeteria in Long Island City is offering a special Chinese New Year prosperity salad ($ 28) that will be available for travel from 12 to 19 February. The salad should be served together with others to bring good luck, it includes salmon sashimi, marinated ikura at home, oishii shrimp, shredded vegetables and homemade pickles, among other ingredients. The salad must be pre-ordered at least 24 hours in advance.
– Bedford + Bowery goes inside the College Student Pantry on the Lower East Side, where anyone with a student ID can pick up bags of groceries every Wednesday from 3 pm to 5 pm
– The luxury Brooklyn Fare supermarket is planning a gigantic 21,600 square foot store on the Upper West Side to open this summer, reports the Commercial Observer.
– The robust Essex Market’s Davidovich Bakery appears to be opening a new location in the East Village, according to EV Grieve.
– Pearl River Mart Foods and Very Fresh Noodles at Chelsea Market have teamed up to offer an incredible celebration of the Lunar New Year on Saturday, February 13th. Each $ 150 ticket includes a four-person meal of Very Fresh Taiwanese beef noodle soup La Mei Noodles, spicy pork and Kimbap Lab yubu kimbap rolls, a variety of steamed bao from Mao’s Bao and lots of most. The meal – served in the Chelsea Market’s private heated outdoor booths – is accompanied by a presentation by the Dragon and Lion Dance Team of the Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute. Customers will also receive “a special New Year gift” from Pearl River Mart, according to a spokesman. The meal and the show have two schedules, at 12 noon and 2:30 pm, on Saturday.
– Ceremonia Bakeshop family bakery in Williamsburg will reopen on February 13 with a new raspberry passion fruit cake on the menu.
– Hot Bread Kitchen is offering a Zoom Valentine’s Day cooking class on February 14 at 12pm, where participants will make corn bread and cabbage eggs Benedict with Cornbread26, a local catering company. Tickets cost on a sliding scale from free to $ 30 each, with all proceeds going to Cornbread26.
– Happy Lunar New Year!