By Matt Weidler
With COVID 19 as bad as ever and the vaccine delivery system still having plenty of question marks around it, most restaurants are not available for indoor seating or are extremely limited.
This works in the summer, but obviously becomes a much bigger news story as we approach the cold days. How are Irvington restaurants going to deal with the winter?
There are many restaurants in Irvington who have been opened through the pandemic for pickup and then in the late summer and fall for outdoor seating. There are some restaurants who allow indoor seating but not all.
Outdoor seating is obviously not gonna work with the winter conditions as we see temperatures dropping to as cold as 10 degrees this week. If there is COVID-19 in a restaurant it will be shut down for weeks, so will restaurants go back to just delivery and pickup or will they allow indoor seating?
Even if indoor seating is allowed this will hurt business and there will be less customers. Restaurants’ willingness to have people inside of their restaurants is something to monitor as we hit the winter season.
The other aspect that we need to pay attention too is will people feel comfortable doing this. We know some people are more cautious than others. Going inside restaurants is something many people are afraid to do during these times. If restaurants allow indoor seating a lot of people may not even go. It will be interesting to see how many people will eat indoors and if people adjust due to the weather. If the majority of people decide against eating indoors this could definitely affect business for these restaurants in a bad way.
All in all, restaurants will be very dependent on the people’s decision. Majority of restaurants will likely do most of there work via delivery. COVID’s impact on restaurants will start to show its impact as we get into the cold days of the winter.
