Following the return of indoor dining at 25 percent of normal restaurant capacity, on Friday, Feb. 12, at least one Bedford Park restaurant owner was hopeful that it was a sign of things slowly, and hopefully, returning to normal.

 

Maria Torres is the manager of Bedford Café and Restaurant, located at 1 Bedford Park Boulevard which, until Feb. 12, had been closed since Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued his executive “PAUSE” order on March 16, 2020. The order restricted all, on-premises consumption of food and beverages at eating and drinking establishments, statewide.

 

Eleven months later, on Tuesday, Feb. 16, Torres was asked how business was going at Bedford Café since the latest phase of indoor dining recommenced. She told the Norwood News, “Yes, we are excited about it,” adding, however, that business was not like they had expected it to be. “It’s a whole process,” she said.

 

According to the manager, people don’t yet feel 100 percent comfortable returning to dine in public. “Even if we do the cleaning, and everything, and follow all the procedures, the seniors have no plans for coming back,” she said.

 

“We are hopeful now with the vaccine and all that, things are going to start getting, little by little, back to normal,” Torres added. “And people are going to get used to being back, and feeling comfortable, and see that we are doing all the cleaning, and all the measures to keep everyone healthy. So, one day things are going to go back to more interaction, like it used to be.”

 

Torres said she hasn’t seen any customers since the pandemic first hit, and did not reopen even when indoor dining returned for a brief duration late last year. Referring to her regulars, she said, “Even now that we’ve opened indoors, they haven’t come back in.” She added, “They don’t feel comfortable to come out of their apartments. We serve a lot of elderly people, so they are more careful, and I understand that. So, most get it delivered.”

 

Nonetheless, perhaps because it was St. Valentine’s Day, every other table at the restaurant was occupied when the Norwood News visited the restaurant on Sunday, Feb. 14.

 

Meanwhile, also on Sunday, Feb. 14, at the National Restaurant and Coffee Shop, located on East Bedford Park Boulevard, a group of happy, young women were seen enjoying a Valentine’s morning breakfast. Even though it was morning time, the restaurant had a decent scattering of customers also.

As reported recently by the Norwood News, 44 neighborhood organizations representing New York City’s five boroughs recently joined forces to deliver messages of love and support to small businesses, citywide, in the lead up to St. Valentine’s Day.

 

The 44 associations were a combination of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), chambers of commerce, merchant associations and other community-based development organizations. They customized the citywide “St. Valentine’s Day Sweethearts Shop Local” initiative to individual neighborhoods across the city, with the following common messages:

• Shop local
• Order direct
• Write a positive review
• Shout out on social media
• Buy a gift card
• Send a love letter

 

Additionally, as also reported by the Norwood News, Wells Fargo recently announced that it was providing grants totaling $5 million to local, community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19, across all five boroughs.

 

The restaurant industry has been hit especially hard by the pandemic, despite innovative recent programs like Open Restaurants which facilitated more outdoor dining in safer environments amid the pandemic, while the weather was warmer.

 

Soon after the pandemic hit last March, it became clear that the arrival of the statewide PAUSE order and the associated uptick in home delivery of food was benefiting giant food platforms like Uber Eats and Grubhub, while smaller restaurants were still struggling due to the high fees they were charged by such platforms for connecting them with customers.

 

Legislation was subsequently introduced on May 13 to address the issue and cap food delivery fees by third-party services at 15 percent of the cost of an order during a state of emergency when restaurants can’t serve food on site.

 

The City also signed into law a package of bills on Monday, Sept. 28, that expanded protections for workers, consumers, and commercial tenants. The first bill, which was sponsored by former Councilman for District 11, Andrew Cohen, extended and expanded the City’s paid safe and sick leave law to reach more workers. Two other bills reinforced and extended protections for commercial tenants, and protected the jobs of hotel workers.

 

Financial aid is also available to New York City restaurant workers through an initiative called ROAR, in conjunction with the Robin Hood Foundation. More details can be found here. In addition, a new campaign has been launched to encourage New Yorkers to take the pledge and commit to the NY Forever campaign, by using every ounce of collective strength to rebuild New York.

 

With so many people ordering home delivery of food and packages, an uptick in fatal bike accidents involving food and package delivery workers was another unfortunate symptom of the shutdown.

 

Meanwhile, at least two rallies were organized last year by the restaurant and bar industry to call for an increase of indoor dining to 50 percent capacity in the City, as opposed to the 25 percent limit set by the governor, and in order to bring City establishments in line with the 50 percent capacity limit set for other parts of the State. However, amid concerns over rising COVID cases across the five boroughs last fall, those calls were not heard.

In the meantime, the governor has since announced that the indoor dining limit will be increased to 35 percent capacity in the City with effect from Friday, February 26.

 

Jeffrey Rivera, who works at Mar y Tierra restaurant located on Bainbridge Avenue in Norwood, was one of many people seen outside hard at work shoveling snow from business fronts on Thursday, Feb.18. Since indoor dining returned, he said business had generally been slow, somewhat sparse, but sort of steady.

 

Asked if the recent period of snowfall was yet another factor keeping people from coming out to dine, Rivera said, “Yes, the whole day.” As of the same day, according to NBC’s weather team, a total of 37 inches of snow had fallen in New York City this winter compared to just 4.8 inches last winter, adding to the woes of businesses already struggling amid the pandemic. One to three more inches was expected through Feb. 19.

 

On March 16, 2020, the Norwood News spoke with the manager of another local business in Bedford Park, Madden’s Bedford Pub. At the time, the manager had planned, and was looking forward to, a big St. Patrick’s Day bash the following evening. However, following the issuance of the governor’s PAUSE order, the bar closed that same night, and didn’t open again until the latter part of 2020, at which point the manager had decided to build an outdoor seating section.

 

He did so. However, it quickly got too cold for anyone to eat, drink or even just sit outside. By that stage, the man said he was fearful his business would have to close its doors outright.

 

The Norwood News reached out again to the bar on Tuesday, Feb. 16, to find out how business was doing since the return of indoor dining. A man who answered the phone said, “It’s doing. I’m a little occupied right now.” He added, “I’m always optimistic for the future. You can’t be negative.”

 

More information about sick leave rights as well as the procedure to follow to file a complaint against an employer can be found at nyc.gov/workers or by calling 311.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.