The city’s public health commissioner hopes restaurants can reopen as early as this weekend.
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Chicago tables remain empty, but there may be some sort of indoor dining room in a few days. Christos Intzempapzakis, the general manager of the three Meli Cafe locations, says it would be a lifeline.
“It would be a very welcome change,” Intzempapzakis said. “It would be something better than what we have so far.”
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Already this weekend, officials say the city could reach level 1, allowing limited covered food …
“We need to remain diligent, but I am optimistic that we will see covered dinners in restaurants relatively soon,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
As restaurants become creative with the cold and snow to create outdoor seating, some said the reopening of partial indoor meals had long been expected for troubled establishments.
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“Even if they had opened yesterday, it’s still too late,” Intzempapzakis said. “There are people who are just out there.”
Sam Sanchez, owner of Moe’s Cantina and Old Crow Smokehouse, believes the news is positive and believes all restaurants should be able to open for indoor dinners with adequate immediate social distancing.
“We expect there to be more than 25 people per restaurant,” Sanchez said. “Hopefully the curfew doesn’t end at ten o’clock at night.”
Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said the number of COVID-19 cases has been steadily declining since Jan. 8. He said he is very optimistic that some covered restaurants can return any day.
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