Originally Posted by
JBord
I'm not sure that appeals to me - it snowed last year in October...
Also I'm sure you saw that the city is holding a contest to design some type of outdoor dining experience that will work through the winter. I'm just not sure it will work with the small spaces available once you put up tents and heating devices, assuming there will be a need for something like that. My expectation is that we'll see a lot more restaurants go out of business this winter.
Yes, IL is at 25%. Here's how I've seen that play out at a couple places, admittedly in the suburbs not in Chicago - restaurants will open only half their space and make sure tables are 6 feet apart. So the 25% is kind of stupid. They're basically operating at 50%, but only in 50% of their available space. I assume it helps the servers and maybe even means a little less service staff. Outdoors, patios are 100% full, with tables sometimes 6 feet apart (but people only about 3 feet apart).
I'd like to see the capacity constraint go away, and allow restaurants to operate normally as long as tables are 6 feet apart, at least if windows can be opened. In the winter, maybe a percentage makes more sense. I have a feeling our dining out will decrease in the winter, because there's going to be way more demand than supply, and I'm not disciplined enough to get reservations months in advance.
I'm not sure if be comfortable getting into one of those domes they have down on the Riverwalk. I'll be interested to see what the contest turns up, but I expect we will be eating out much less in the coming months. And while we can have snow in October and May, we can also have 80° days in March.
Originally Posted by
gaobest
Maybe Chicagoland places will fully open their places but still keep 25% capacities. I don’t know how they can survive without raising costs.
A lot of places have decided not to open indoors at 25% capacity. Our local pub has a capacity of 80, according to the fire inspector. A 25%, that is 20 people. But they have seven or eight staff members working at any given time so that means you're doing indoor seating for 12 or 13 people. They have decided it is just not worth the risk to allow a few more people indoors. However, they just bought the bar next door, so they now have twice as much outdoor seating.