After two weeks of only offering outdoor dining — and a couple months before that of no on-site dining at all — restaurants are ready for people to come in, sit down, and order their favorite meal or drink, while socializing with friends, family, and restaurant staff.
Indeed, indoor dining will resume at Massachusetts restaurants Monday as part of Gov. Charlie Baker’s second phase of reopening businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic. At a State House press conference, Baker said the move allows restaurants to increase their capacity from 25 percent to 50 percent of their workforce.
“Reopening Massachusetts is working,” Baker said. “Business is coming back, people are regaining that sense of purpose that was lost. I know it can’t happen fast enough, but people in Massachusetts are proving that we can reopen and continue to bring the fight to the virus when we all do our part.”
Part of the rationale for reopening is that Massachusetts has continued to see downward trends in hospitalizations — now under 1,000 — and positive COVID-19 tests, which have fallen to 2.3 percent.
Contacted Sunday, local businesses were looking forward to allowing customers to dine inside their restaurants.
“We’re making sure we can do everything we can to open up,” said Marty Bloom, co-owner of Mission on the Bay in Swampscott.
Bloom said his staff has been working hard to get indoor tables spread out at least six feet from each other to follow state guidelines and open Monday. If things aren’t ready, the restaurant will open for indoor dining Tuesday, but, either way, it’s exciting to be getting back to business, Bloom said.
“It’s still suboptimal, but it’s getting better,” Bloom said. “Every day has been a new educational experience for us.”
Bloom said he and his staff have been following COVID-19 guidelines closely. Although opening up is exciting, there are still some concerns — staff may not be ready to come back to work yet; and, due to a decreased staff, a smaller menu will be offered, which may disappoint customers.
At Christopher’s Cafe & Catering in Lynn, owner David Shalvoy said he has been spacing out tables and making sure indoor dining at the cafe is in-line with state guidelines. However, Shalvoy said he has been polling customers as they enter the restaurant, and the vast majority of them would rather sit down outside anyway, given the nice weather. It shouldn’t make too much of a difference business-wise, Shalvoy said.
“Sure, the indoor dining is going to be great in case it rains,” Shalvoy said. “But we’ve always had outdoor dining … that’s what people want.”
Lynn resident Bill Cushing is a restaurateur who runs a cafe in Reading, Christopher’s Restaurant. He said people in the industry have been “all excited” about the prospect of reopening in full.
“It’s definitely been a struggle, but this is a good start,” Cushing said.
Cushing said because of social distancing guidelines, he will have to space out tables at his restaurant and ultimately only be able to accommodate about one third of normal capacity. However, it’s a step in the right direction from “just doing take-out and delivery,” Cushing said.
In addition to allowing indoor dining, this step in the state’s reopening plan allows close personal services, such as nail salon services, tattooing, and massaging, to resume.
By chance, the move into the second step of the state’s “Phase Two” reopening plan comes in the middle of a heat wave. According to NBC Boston, New England will be staying “warm to hot” for the next week, with temperatures reaching the 90s some days.
At Baker’s Friday press conference, he warned that, although things are reopening, “COVID doesn’t take the summer off, and people should still socially distance, wear masks, and stay home as much as possible. People working from home should continue to do so “for a little longer,” he said, to avoid overcrowding public transit.
