Although some areas of the country are currently allowing outdoors dining and even indoor dining with capacity limits, many areas are still requiring that restaurants remain closed except for take-out..
But there is growing pressure to allow restaurants and breweries/wineries to reopen, with the claim that most virus transmissions are occurring during at-home gatherings and parties. “If we have people and give them an outlet for entertainment in the restaurant space, in the bar space, we have much more of an opportunity, in my view, to be able to regulate and control that environment,” Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a Press Democrat article.
Meanwhile, a coalition in California has formed to fight for reopening of restaurant’s and wineries. The Wine Coalition for Safe Reopening, a group of Napa and Sonoma Valley restaurants and wineries came together because of the “misinformation surrounding outdoor dining, the state prohibitions on outdoor dining built on that misinformation, and the serious harm those prohibitions are causing us, our employees, and our industry,” the coalition stated on their website.
The coalition filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the state to reopen wineries and restaurants.