Starting Monday, most restaurants across Massachusetts will no longer have to limit how many people can sit and eat inside.
Gov. Charlie Baker has removed capacity limits on indoor dining. Tables will still need to be either six feet apart or be separated by partitions.
The move has received mixed reviews from restaurateurs after months of balancing safety, compliance and livelihood.
Nancy Caswell owns the restaurants Oak and Rowan, in Boston, and Brine, in Newburyport. Both businesses found success in warm weather with outdoor dining but are now temporarily closed — or "hibernating" — this winter. Construction is ongoing at a new location for Brine, but the hope is to open up for indoor dining soon. Oak and Rowan also plans to open up for indoor dining in a couple of weeks.
"I am not feeling 100% on the idea of opening and not having vaccinations in place, or at least a day to look forward to," Caswell said. "But I do feel like at this point, we have to stimulate the economy and get it moving in some way. And this is going to have to happen, because we can't just be on pause for this longterm and not be losing money. When restaurants are saying they're hibernating, we're not just cutting costs and not worried about it. We're mitigating expenses and realizing how much loss we're going to have in place, as opposed to rolling the dice."
Emma Hollander is a managing partner at the Starlite Management Company, which owns Trina's Starlite Lounge and Parlor Sports, both in Somerville, along with the Paddle Inn in Newburyport.
Hollander said the three locations shut down indoor dining last March and have not allowed it since, deciding to stick with takeout and patio seating in warmer months. She said her company doesn't want to allow indoor dining until every member of its staff is vaccinated.
"You can't have a restaurant and have people wearing a mask 100% of the time," Hollander said. "So to put people inside of our building, where we're required to wear masks but they're not — because they can't as they're eating and drinking — it really puts a majority of our staff in a really, really bad position. And we are incredibly concerned that any member of our team can get sick. Nobody wants to get sick, but, something worse can happen. That's our top priority and our top concern right now."
Click on the audio player above to listen to the full episode.
Segments:
Nancy Caswell - 2:26
Emma Hollander - 15:13
