De Blasio Promises NYC Indoor Dining ‘Final Answer’ In September

NEW YORK CITY — Hungry New Yorkers and business-starved restaurants will receive a “final answer” this month on whether or when indoor dining will return to the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised.

De Blasio’s vow Wednesday acknowledged restaurateurs’ rumblings about indoor dining, which has been banned for months in New York City amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Eateries deserve a decision as soon as possible so they can make plans “up or down,” de Blasio said.

“I think it’s our responsibility to give them as clear an answer in the month of September as possible of where we’re going,” he said. “If there can be a timeline, if there can be a set of standards for reopening, we need to decide in the next few weeks and announce it, whether it’s good news or bad news.”

Restaurant owners have forecast doom for their industry in New York City if indoor dining doesn’t return, especially with the coming winter and eateries opening in surrounding areas.

And a growing number of restaurant industry leaders are swapping out public relations pushes for court challenges.

A restaurant in Little Neck, Queens, this week filed a $2 billion lawsuit against de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, arguing shutdown orders violate the Fifth Amendment’s protection against the government taking private property without “just compensation.”

The lawsuit — which covers the Il Bacco restaurant and is “on behalf of all others similarly situated” — argues the shutdowns unfairly and unscientifically impact New York City eateries and more than 150,000 restaurant workers who remain unemployed.

The shutdown is especially galling for Il Bacco, which the lawsuit states in all-caps, bolded text is “ONE” block from Nassau County, where indoor dining is allowed.

“Plaintiff is losing all of its customers to restaurants in Nassau County and is suffering irreparable harm as a result,” the lawsuit states. “There is absolutely NO SCIENCE that will prove that ‘indoor dining’ is safer one city block east from Plaintiff’s restaurant.”

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Wednesday also called for a start to indoor dining in New York City.

“It’s time to allow indoor dining in New York City with reduced capacity and clear guidance to ensure social distancing and safety,” he said in a statement.

Johnson’s endorsement was quickly echoed by the NYC Hospitality Alliance, which has been pushing for indoor dining.

“With New Jersey resuming indoor dining on Friday and restaurants elsewhere across New York state having safely served customers indoors for months, the NYC Hospitality Alliance, restaurant owners from across the five boroughs, industry leaders, members of the State Senate, City Council and now Speaker Johnson have all called for an immediate plan to resume indoor dining,” said Andrew Rigie, the alliance’s executive director, in a statement.

But for all of de Blasio’s newfound openness to reconsidering a plan, he also noted caution on Wednesday.

Indoor dining has been linked to COVID-19 resurgences around the country, he said, though he also drew a distinction between the risk from restaurants compared to indoor bars and nightclubs.

An 85-person coronavirus cluster linked to a single East Lansing, Michigan, bar was cited by de Blasio in June as a reason why New York City would hold off indoor dining for its final stage of reopening.

“Those are even more profound problems than indoor restaurants,” de Blasio said of nightclubs and bars on Wednesday. “And we are treating indoor restaurants separately. I know folks in the restaurant industry have asked the question, a very fair question; the answer is yes, we see it as very different.”