BUFFALO, N.Y. — Outdoor dining is allowed again in regions of New York State where Phase 2 of reopening is underway.
Remington Tavern in North Tonawanda has been open for takeout, but now you can eat outside. The restaurant isn't taking reservations. You just show up.
In order to reopen for outdoor dining, restaurants have to make sure the tables are six feet apart, and the staff has to wear face coverings. Customers also have to wear masks when they aren't sitting down.
A lot of restaurants in Western New York are open Thursday for outdoor seating. Some are taking reservations with two seatings and are making sure everyone gets home by the 8 p.m. curfew in Buffalo, especially if the restaurant is in Buffalo.
At Craving on Hertel Avenue, they've been anticipating this.
"We've had some plans for reopening in place for a long time. We didn't know when it was going to happen, but we had some things that we're already working on. You know, this last-minute let us have people on the patio thing, I'm looking as a blessing, made a couple phone calls, I have some friends and some nice places to be able to make it so that our patio is going to be compliant with everything and all the guidelines that the Governor has sent down to us," said Craving Executive Chef Adam Goetz.
Restaurants like Tappo in downtown Buffalo are also reopening Thursday for outdoor seating, and because of the curfew, it is closing at 8. Reservations at Tappo are full for Thursday.
The Quarter fired up a new menu Thursday with outdoor seating that's all six feet apart, and reservations filled up quickly.
At Craving, reopening outdoor seating means bringing back staff.
"It's amazing and, you know, our staff here is like a family. We have a lot of employee retention, and they've just been chomping at the bit to be able to come back. So, we're going to slowly bring everybody back. We're going to see what's going to happen. I mean, we can only seat about 15 people out here anyway. So, but, we're excited. It's something in the right way. It's in the right direction. And it's, you know, on the way to normal," says Goetz.
On Chippewa at Frankie Primo's, there's a patio where there were two seatings - at 4 and 6 p.m. They wanted people to liming their meals to 90 minutes to accommodate everyone while respecting the curfew.
At Craving, they adapted right away with a takeout menu.
"The beauty of this restaurant is that we rewrite our menu every day, and we are a farm-to-table restaurant in the truest sense of the form. So, for us, it's just been a matter of mitigating our risk and only bringing in exactly kind of like what we need for the day, rewriting the menu. And luckily for us, the people in North Buffalo are fantastic. They've been coming for curbside pickup since day one, and they've kept this going, kept us afloat. I couldn't be more appreciative of our customers and neighborhood, and now we're just going to slowly kind of move forward and keep offering more things to more people and hopefully, we get through it all to normalcy, I guess," says Goetz.
The best advice before you go to a restaurant, check out its Facebook page to see whether you have to make reservations, or just give the restaurant a call.