The city of Chicago said Tuesday it is reducing indoor dining restrictions for a second consecutive week, allowing bars and restaurants to offer service at either 40% capacity or 50 people, whichever is less.
Most recently the city had allowed those businesses to serve customers at either 25% capacity or 50 people. When allowing indoor dining to resume in late January after a three-month pause, limits were capped at 25% or 25 people.
Mary Kay Tuzi, co-owner of Old Town barbecue mainstay Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern, called the development “amazing news.”
“We’re thrilled,” she said.
The shift from 25% to 40% allows her to boost capacity from about 23 customers at a time to 40, allowing the restaurant to bring in more revenue after a year of struggle, Tuzi said. She said she may bring back another server and another busser as a result.
At 40% occupancy, Chicago restaurants are able to serve the most customers indoors since the city also briefly allowed 40% capacity in October. Since the start of the pandemic, indoor dining in the city has never pushed past 40%.
The city said the rollback is due to Chicago recording fewer than 400 new COVID-19 cases per day, based on a seven-day rolling average, for three consecutive days.
“I am thrilled that we have made enough headway to cautiously ease more regulations, but I once again want to remind all our businesses and residents that we are not out of the woods yet,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement. “Only by committing to what we know works will we be able to continue moving forward carefully and responsibly.”
Other restrictions that remain, however, include a maximum of six people per table, alcohol service ending at 11 p.m., establishments closing for on-site service by midnight and food must be available at all times to offer indoor service.
The next target is an increase to allowing bars and restaurants to serve at 50% indoor capacity, the city said.
Future easing of COVID-19 regulations will be based on cases diagnosed per day (the current average is 344, the city said), positivity rate (currently 3.6%), emergency room visits (62 per day) and ICU beds occupied (current average is 117).
