Indoor Dining Returns to N.Y.C. After 6 Months |
Weather: A nice day: Sunny, with scattered clouds and a high in the low 70s. |
 | | Desiree Rios for The New York Times |
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After more than six months of empty dining rooms, restaurants across New York City just moved a little closer back to normal. |
Indoor dining was allowed to restart citywide at 25 percent capacity on Wednesday in a major milestone in the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. While the reopening will probably not be enough to save some of the spots that have relied on takeout and outdoor tables since mid-March, Mayor Bill de Blasio was cautiously optimistic. |
“It’s crucial, of course, to bringing back more jobs and helping businesses to survive,” Mr. de Blasio said. “But health and safety, as always, come first.” |
Here’s what you need to know about the reopening of indoor dining: |
The return was filled with celebration and trepidation. |
At noon on Wednesday, Aroma Brazil, a restaurant in Queens, had only three diners inside. In the Bronx, where the Mexican restaurant Xochimilco once held 40 customers, it could now only admit 10. But some owners told my colleague Michael Gold that even the limited service was cause for excitement and hope. |
Still, others were unsure whether more customers would feel safe enough to return and worried about making costly changes for little turnout. “It’s hard to know if there is going to be the demand,” said Leah Cohen, the chef at Pig and Khao on the Lower East Side. |
Indoor dining looks much different now. |
Customers who opted for indoor seating on Wednesday were met with a new dining experience, even before walking inside. Patrons got their temperatures checked and passed along their information in case the city’s contact tracers needed to follow up. |
Tables in restaurants were spaced six feet apart, a far cry from the cramped neighborhood eateries of pre-pandemic life. Seating at bars was not permitted, and closing time citywide was set at midnight. |
A jump in virus cases could disrupt the reopening. |
On Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio announced that the city’s daily rate of positive tests had risen to 3.25 percent; it dropped on Wednesday to 0.94 percent, but the seven-day average rate of positive test results citywide ticked slightly upward to 1.46 percent. Earlier this month, he had said that he believed indoor dining should “pause” if the infection rate in the city went past 2 percent. |
The decision ultimately lies with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who said on Wednesday that local officials should focus on compliance with safety rules before the reopening was scaled back. “Do Step 1 first: Enforce the mask compliance, issue a ticket,” he said. “And if that doesn’t work, yes, then we’re going to have to take more serious actions.” |
Restaurants may still struggle to stay afloat. |
My colleagues Winnie Hu and Amanda Rosa spoke with restaurateurs like Kenny McPartlan, who owns a barbecue spot in the Bronx. He said the return of indoor dining at limited capacity would still not be enough to make ends meet. “I’ll never make money like this,” he said. “Never.” In New Jersey, where indoor dining has been permitted for almost four weeks at a 25 percent cap, some places are still struggling to stay open. |
About 4,200 children have lost parents or guardians to Covid-19 in New York State, more than lost a parent during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a study. [The City] |
A report found that New York City police officers violated human rights laws during a June protest in the South Bronx where many demonstrators were arrested. [Gothamist] |
A lawsuit filed by the state attorney general said that New York Sports Clubs charged members fees while gyms were closed during the pandemic. [Business Insider] |
A Times virtual event: ‘Offstage’ |
Do you miss the butterflies that flutter as the stage lights go down? That effervescent feeling of a show you’ll never forget? You’re not alone. |
Join Hillary Clinton, a lifelong theater lover, at 7 tonight as she reflects on theater’s meaning, its absence and its future in a conversation with the Times’s theater reporter, Michael Paulson. Then, Audra McDonald, Danielle Brooks, Jessie Mueller and Neil Patrick Harris — all Broadway actors — will share what they miss most about the stage and what they want for theater’s return. |
The event is our third episode of “Offstage,” a series about theatermaking during the pandemic. R.S.V.P. here. |
And finally: A surprise at Hudson River Park |
Expanding a park usually means modifying an existing landscape. The designers of Pier 26 faced a far more daunting challenge: creating an entirely new one in the swift current of the Hudson River. |
On Wednesday afternoon, the revamped pier was opened at the end of North Moore Street in Manhattan. The latest addition to Hudson River Park, this 2.5-acre expanse is the city’s only public pier dedicated to river ecology. |
Incorporating a lawn, a sports court and decks elevated more than 12 feet above the water, it exhibits indigenous plants and trees that hark back to when only Native Americans occupied what is now New York. But the pier’s most distinctive feature is a feat of 21st-century artifice: Because the park’s sea wall prevented developing a rocky intertidal wetland — a science-education bonanza — at the shoreline, the trust decided to engineer one on the river itself. |
Now, twice a day at high tide, this manufactured wetland floods completely, a process that visitors can observe from the decks overhead. During low tide, tour groups and school classes can descend a walkway into the marsh, where they can closely study the Hudson estuary, a vast ecosystem where the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean mingles with the freshwater of the river and its tributaries. |
It’s Thursday — go explore. |
Metropolitan Diary: Hungarian pastry shop |
My fiancé and I got engaged in February at the People’s Garden on 111th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. |
Afterward, we walked to one of our favorite places in the city, the Hungarian Pastry Shop, to celebrate. |
The people who were working that day had graciously reserved a table for us and hidden a bottle of Champagne in the kitchen. They offered us anything we wanted on the house, took photos and videos and announced our engagement to everyone in the crowded shop. It was truly a memorable day. |
Several months later, we returned to the shop for the first time since our engagement. When it was our turn to order, the woman at the counter recognized us immediately. |
“It’s you!” she said. “You are still together!” |
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