The city of Chicago said Tuesday it is easing indoor dining restrictions for a second consecutive week, allowing bars and restaurants to offer service at either 40% capacity or 50 people, whichever is less.
Most recently the city had allowed those businesses to serve customers at either 25% capacity or 50 people. When allowing indoor dining to resume in late January after a three-month pause, limits were capped at 25% or 25 people.
Mary Kay Tuzi, co-owner of Old Town barbecue mainstay Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern, called the development “amazing news.”
“We’re thrilled,” she said.
The shift from 25% to 40%, effective Tuesday, allows her to boost capacity from about 23 customers at a time to 40, allowing the restaurant to bring in more revenue after a year of struggle, Tuzi said. She said she may bring back another server and another busser as a result.
At 40% occupancy, Chicago restaurants are able to serve the most customers indoors since the city also briefly allowed 40% capacity in October. Since the start of the pandemic, indoor dining in the city has never pushed past 40%.
The city said the rollback is due to Chicago recording fewer than 400 new COVID-19 cases per day, based on a seven-day rolling average, for three consecutive days.
“I am thrilled that we have made enough headway to cautiously ease more regulations, but I once again want to remind all our businesses and residents that we are not out of the woods yet,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement. “Only by committing to what we know works will we be able to continue moving forward carefully and responsibly.”
Other restrictions remain, however, including a maximum of six people per table, alcohol service ending at 11 p.m., establishments closing for on-site service by midnight and food being available at all times to offer indoor service.
The next target is an increase to allowing bars and restaurants to serve at 50% of indoor capacity, the city said.
Future easing of COVID-19 regulations will be based on the number of cases diagnosed per day (the current average is 344, the city said), the positivity rate (currently 3.6%), the number of emergency room visits (62 per day) and the number of ICU beds occupied (the current average is 117).