Chicago restaurants and bars fighting for survival after twice being forced to close their dining rooms got the go-ahead Tuesday to increase their indoor to capacity to 40% or 50 people, whichever is less.
Last week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot “turned the dimmer switch”—by freezing capacity at 25%, but allowing restaurant and bars to serve 50 people “per room or floor,” whichever is less.
The Illinois Restaurant Association called it a “baby step.” The trade group representing a restaurant industry decimated by the coronavirus pandemic was hoping the mayor would raise indoor capacity to 40 or 50%.
To increase restaurant and bar capacity to 40%, Lightfoot demanded that Chicago’s positivity rate drop below 400 for three straight days. The positivity rate, emergency room visits and ICU bed occupancy was already in “moderate-risk” level and needed to remain so.
Now, all of those metrics have been met, allowing the mayor to loosen her iron-fisted grip.
The rolling, seven-day average of coronavirus cases now stands at 344. Chicago’s average test positivity rate is 3.6%, which falls into the “low-risk” level. The rolling average of emergency room visits for “COVID-like illness” (62-a-day) and intensive care beds occupied (117-a-day) fall into the “moderate-risk” category.
“In recent days, we have made incredible progress in the ongoing effort to save lives and defeat this deadly virus,” Lightfoot was quoted as saying in an emailed statement issued by City Hall.
“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. Only by committing to what we know works will we be able to continue moving forward carefully and responsibly.”
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia was grateful to Lightfoot for the modest reprieve.
“Restaurants in Jefferson Park, Rogers Park, in Chatham, Bronzeville, Beverly and in Little Village on 26th Street. It’s gonna help those restaurants very, very much. They’re smaller restaurants with 100-people capacity and we were at 25 [%]. Now, they can up to to 40,” he said.
But, Toia pleaded with the mayor to loosen her iron-fisted grip even more.
“For the larger restaurants in our Central Business District, we would like to see going up to 100 people-per-room,” Toia said.
“Obviously, you have to have the social distancing. Team members and guests need to wear their masks. You’ve got to make sure the restaurant is cleaned and sanitized and everyone is following PPE guidelines.”
According the latest figures from the National Restaurant Associated, 110,000 restaurants have closed across the nation and over 2.5 million jobs in the restaurant and hospitality industry have been lost since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Even with 40% capacity, other city controls remain.
Bars and brewers must offer food to serve indoor patrons or establish a partnership with a local restaurant. There’s a maximum of six-patrons-per-table. Bar patrons and restaurant and bar tables must sit six feet apart. Face coverings must be worn at all times — except when eating and drinking. Bars and restaurants must close at midnight. And the sale of alcohol must end at 11 p.m.—for indoor patrons and carry-out customers.
To boost capacity to 50% all four metrics must be in the moderate risk level for two straight weeks.
“As long as we can stay there for one incubation period, we’ll go to 50%,” Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told reporters last week.
“My goal is to make sure that we can get restaurants open safely in a way that does not lead to us needing to close them again…My goal is to move as quickly as it is safe to move and not to get into a situation where we have a third surge here in Chicago.”
Last week, Toia complained that Lightfoot’s go-slow approach was rewarding downtown restaurants with multiple rooms and penalizing neighborhood establishments with only one dining room.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), owner of Ann Sather restaurants, was equally disappointed. He noted that a “large percentage” of restaurants have already been lost.
“It’s almost gonna be a year, right? Those people do not have that kind of capital to keep going. Even if they did get grants from the federal government, they’ve gone through that and still haven’t been able to survive,” Tunney said then.
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) countered that the mayor’s go-slow approach makes sense until we know more about whether the more contagious coronavirus variant that originated in the UK is taking hold in Chicago.
“We don’t want to give people the false sense that this pandemic is over. It may not be. … We can’t afford to take that risk. And if you wait for the spread to begin, you really can’t stop it. Once it starts, it’s too late,” Hopkins said.
“We have to continue to be cautious and very slowly ease up on the restrictions. I know that’s not welcome news particularly for restaurants who are at the decline in positivity and really want to throw their doors wide open again. We simply can’t do that right now because of the very real threat that this highly transmissible variant [is out there] and it’s going to target places where people are indoors and unmasked. That means a restaurant.”
