Indoor dining allowed again at all Orange Zone restaurants

New York state will again allow indoor dining at all restaurants, removing a burdensome restriction that had caused economic hardship for restaurateurs in designated COVID-19 Orange Zones.

“We’re ecstatic and happy to be back open,” said Van Zissis, owner of Highland Park Diner on South Clinton Avenue and Mel’s Diner on Mt. Read Boulevard in Greece.

The change in policy comes less than 24 hours after a state Supreme Court judge allowed eateries in all of Erie County to reopen for indoor dining, acting after a group of restaurant owners filed suit to challenge Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Orange Zone edict issued on Nov. 23.

Restaurants still must follow Yellow Zone guidelines, which means capacity is limited to 50 percent, social distancing is required and there must be continual sanitizing of all public spaces.

Counsel to Cuomo, Kumiki Gibson, said in a news release that the state disagrees with the court ruling. But while the court process plays out, Gibson said that in order to “ensure uniformity and fairness, all restaurants operating in Orange Zones can now operate under rules governing Yellow Zones.”

Zissis estimated that business was down 80 percent to 90 percent during the seven weeks of Orange Zone restrictions. And while indoor dining will mean a revenue revival, he stressed that Yellow Zone guidelines must be carefully followed.

“Just because we’re open it doesn’t mean we can open the flood gates, pack everyone in and try to make up for all we lost,” Zissis said. “This virus is serious. The last thing we want to do is be responsible for someone getting sick or, God forbid, dying because of our carelessness.”

His diner in Greece was a perfect example of how the Orange Zone designations could be considered arbitrary. He was forced to halt indoor dining but the Dunkin Donuts directly across Mt. Read Boulevard has been welcoming dine-in customers all along.

“Imagine me sitting at Mel’s doing paperwork and I see my customers going into Dunkin Donuts,” Zissis said. “They can get COVID here but they can’t across the street?”

The lawsuit filed by Erie and Monroe countries restauranteurs wasn’t the only pressure Cuomo was feeling on the issue. Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, in a letter sent earlier this week, implored the governor to allow all eateries to provide indoor dining.

She wrote that small businesses were suffering, and that the Orange Zone restrictions created “the unintended consequence of disproportionately affecting city-owned businesses, many of them owned by women and people of color, creating an outsized blow to urban economies.”

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