Is indoor dining allowed at 25%

Well, as of yesterday in most of the northern California counties, indoor dining has finally resumed along with bars being allowed to open. We have taken advantage of both, yesterday and today. Extremely happy!

Wow! Where’d you go??

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.

Maybe Chicagoland places will fully open their places but still keep 25% capacities. I don’t know how they can survive without raising costs.

On Monday we went to AA Steakhouse/Bar in Eureka expecting to sit outside in the tent, but were able to sit at the bar inside. Only went for a couple of beers. On Tuesday we went to the 707 Bar which is a bar only and has been completely closed since March except for a 3 week reprieve in July.

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.

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.

I think all that matters is the 25% capacity. They're basically doing that now indoors. The point is that they can keep tables 6 feet apart and operate at a much higher capacity, but the state won't let them. Personally, I think we'll see a lot that don't make it through the winter, or just completely close down in the winter with the hope of re-opening in the spring.

No question about it, it just adds unpredictability to the restaurant business at the worst possible time. Last winter, while not the coldest or snowiest, might be the longest I remember in my 30 years (current streak - about 36 total) in Chicago. It was cold and snowy in October and didn't let up again until the end of May. We bought our suburb house at the end of April and spent a month dismayed that we couldn't enjoy our yard with the 45-degree highs. Usually it seems we get either a warmer fall or spring -- just one of them, but it makes a difference for my mental health.

As you know, so many neighborhood places in Chicago (we still have our Lincoln Park condo too) have a seating capacity of 75 or fewer. But bar + standing room, you could easily have 150 people crammed into a small bar on a Saturday night, pre-pandemic. Do you know if the 25% capacity is based on the fire code capacity rules (i.e. the 150) or seating? That might help in the winter, as long as they can fit enough tables 6 ft apart.

My wife requires a heat lamp for outside dining somewhere around 69F.
Fortunately both of us have no concerns with eating inside, just the supply and demand issue.

My favorite local brewery has 4 staff members working usually, as they've never employed servers, just bartenders and kitchen staff. They are slightly better off as they can probably have a capacity of 30 given the 25% capacity restrictions, but that includes their outdoor capacity.

That sounds unpleasant at best...better to just convert the Skokie spur line into a dining train.

Mixed results in the DC area. First, I prefer outdoor dining when the weather is comfortable, i.e. not mid-July through much of August. And I generally never dine at a national chain. A couple of restaurants, very local to me, have done an excellent job - first takeaway, then outdoor dining, and now limited indoor dining. All excellent experiences.

My experiences in DC itself have been mixed. I've only been an outdoor diner in DC since restaurants re-opened (again my preference even pre-pandemic). A couple of establishments have provided excellent service and food preparation; I think 'this establishment really wants me here'. A couple of others, with good reviews pre-pandemic, have not met expectations. I've had from staff the impression 'I really don't want to be here' to some surprise pricing on menus to much smaller portions as compared to my past experiences. I think I'll have to start checking Yelp reviews post-pandemic vs. the aggregate rating. Finally, I miss the happy hour specials; few and far between right now. Hopefully those will start to reappear.

I think capacity is based on the fire code before when we asked the owner of our local pub, the math she did for us was based on fire code occupancy. (A number I normally wouldn't be aware of, but I've noticed their sign before and always through it seemed low for a pub of their size.)

Agree re last winter! We did use our backyard on some sunny days last April (while dressed in layers), but I was also dragging plants in to the garage in May thanks to freezes and at least one snowfall.

We had dinner at an all day �Sunday Brunch� at a major hotel in Jakarta. They required reservations. While the tables may have been spaced a little further away than normal, it�s certainly not the 25-50% capacity I�ve seen at other hotels here recently.

Mask usage by employees was excellent. I�d say about 25% of guests had their mask below their nose, or a very loose fit on their face. Every 20 minutes a gong would go off, to remind employees to wash their hands.

I love this 20 minute gong idea - never thought of it. Just hope employees are socially distancing while in queue to wash hands and aren�t using a shared towel. I�ve read enough anecdotes about airplane de-boardings without distance plus crowded airport buses.

The reminder is good in theory, except I'm more concerned that they wash their hands before or after certain things, as opposed to just strictly every 20 minutes.