Mayor Bill de Blasio dined indoors at a restaurant in Chinatown on Wednesday. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
Feb. 19, 2021 By Allie Griffin
New York City eateries will be able to serve more customers indoors starting next week.
City restaurants will be able to increase their indoor dining capacity to 35 percent next Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today.
The establishments were permitted to reopen indoor dining rooms at 25 percent capacity last Friday, Feb. 12, after months of relying solely on outdoor dining and takeout or delivery orders.
Cuomo upped the capacity level to match New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy increased indoor dining capacity from 25 percent to 35 percent earlier this month.
“What’s happening now is people in New York City — Staten Island, Manhattan — are going to New Jersey to those restaurants, so it’s not really accomplishing a purpose,” Cuomo said. “So New York City restaurants will go to 35 percent next Friday – that will be consistent with New Jersey.”
Elsewhere in the state, indoor dining is open at 50 percent capacity — a level many NYC restaurant owners and some local lawmakers have asked for across the five boroughs.
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