City restaurant owners brace for return of indoor dining ban

Indoor dining in New York City will be suspended once again come Monday, and restaurants will be forced to operate only through outside dining or takeout options.

News 12 Staff

Dec 12, 2020, 11:32 PM

Updated 1,462 days ago

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Indoor dining in New York City will be suspended once again come Monday, and restaurants will be forced to operate only through outside dining or takeout options.
Carlos Revelo is the general manager of Mamajuana Café in the Bronx. He says he hoped the restaurant would be able to get up to 50% capacity for indoor dinning soon. Instead, it unfortunately turned out to be the last call for indoor dining for at least the next two weeks.
Restaurants can still operate under 25% indoor capacity until Sunday. For Mamajuana Café, that means fitting 45 people.
On Monday, only takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will be allowed.
The outdoor setup at Mamajuana Café has been fully enclosed because of the cold weather—this means the area still falls under the indoor dining category.
Revelo says they will only be able to operate under takeout and delivery starting Monday, if he decides to stay open.
"It's been tough for us this year, very, very tough. But it just seems like more keeps on coming," Revelo says. "I don't know why we're getting targeted, because we feel like we're getting targeted. I don't know why it's happening and it's nonstop. We're down already and they keep on kicking us."
Revelo says to help themselves adjust, the restaurant staff is going back to the drawing board and plans to offer enticing prices and specials as they did in the beginning of their struggle to stay open.