#It still looks like Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio are conspiring to kill NYC’s restaurants

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Gov. Cuomo announced the resumption of 25% capacity indoor dining in New York City beginning September 30.
James Messerschmidt

‘We’ll take it, but. . . .” That’s the overwhelming industry response to Gov. Cuomo’s surprise announcement that Gotham restaurants can finally welcome diners indoors starting Sept. 30 — but only at 25 percent capacity.

“We can’t survive on 25 percent, everyone knows that,” one rankled restaurateur tells me. “We can’t survive on 50 percent.” Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio “aren’t doing us any favors,” he adds. “They are not giving us a lifeline.”

He’s right. It’s bad enough city restaurants must wait to reopen their doors, which were forced to close to all but takeout and delivery on March 16. Outdoor dining wasn’t allowed until June 22 — and that hasn’t been enough to stop even some venerable establishments from going out of business. Angry protests, looting, homeless encampments and rain have forced closures even for places with favorable outdoor setups.

“Sympathetic landlords” are often all that’s keeping open battered businesses making maybe a fifth of their normal revenue, Dog & Bone server Elena Laurenti says.

Restaurants in no other region of the state had to reopen at a paltry quarter-capacity. Indeed, some upstate areas have enjoyed indoor dining at half-capacity since June 11, with no corresponding spike in coronavirus cases that forced them to close up shop again.

The Big Apple itself hasn’t seen spikes since retail shops reopened, either. The city’s infection rate has been under 1 percent for more than a month now, far below the national average of 5 percent.

City metrics were good enough for indoor dining to begin on July 6, but de Blasio and Cuomo halted it days before, after many struggling spots had already hired back staff and ordered perishable food. In doing so, the mayor and governor irrationally pointed not to what was happening elsewhere in the state but elsewhere in the country, where the virus was on a different timetable.

Later, Cuomo blamed lax enforcement of social-distancing rules by city authorities. Now he says density is another issue. Excuses, excuses. I’ve been to restaurants in Ithaca every bit as “dense” as any in Gotham.

And there’s been plenty of “enforcement.” Some might call it harassment. The restaurant owner was happy to talk to me twice but won’t let me identify him, because he’s worried Cuomo’s State Liquor Authority goons will retaliate. He wouldn’t even tell me what he’s been fined for, worried that would identify him.

Laurenti gave me examples of state pettiness, though: outdoor-dining barriers not quite high enough, tables one inch off the required six-foot distance. A server at a hole-in-the-wall ethnic joint told me city authorities visited his establishment four times. Only the final time did they decide the place had more tables out than it should have.

When indoor dining begins, places can stay open until midnight — only slightly better than the 11 pm curfew they’re under now. (Who said this is the city that never sleeps?) And you still can’t get a drink without “substantial” food.

Alexander Athanail — a server at the formerly 24-hour L’Express who was out of work for several months — is more philosophical. “The regulations have been harsh,” he says, “but they haven’t felt malicious to me.” Still, they’ve hit the industry hard.

“The group that owns L’Express has deep pockets, and we have a perfect location to take advantage of outside dining. And we’re still struggling. This is a brutal industry at the best of times. But now? There are lots of people who can’t find jobs. Lots of restaurants that won’t survive. I can’t blame them for feeling abandoned, even targeted, especially when many of these regulations may well have been overkill in the name of prudence.”

Who’s most hurt by this authoritarian control of an industry that’s helped make Gotham the world-class city it is?

“Overwhelmingly, staff are minority, women and immigrants,” the restaurateur says. He’s the only American-born staffer at his place — and he doesn’t draw a salary or get a day off. And no matter what his capacity, he has to pay 100 percent of his rent, electricity bill, worker’s-comp payments and more.

Blas and Cuomo haven’t missed a paycheck yet, however. But they’ve shown zero empathy for the people whose livelihoods they play politics with.

Twitter: @KJTorrance