Restaurants can reopen when COVID retreats, but don’t plan to stay late, mayor says

Manny Leon Sr. says his Argentinian steakhouse can live to serve parrillada another day if Miami-Dade County allows indoor dining to return soon. But he can’t last long.

“Maybe a month more. That’s all,” said Leon, owner of Manny’s Woodgrill Steak House in Doral. “I don’t have any space to sit outside. I’m closed.”

Leon and thousands of other restaurants forced to close their dining rooms earlier this month will have to wait until the coronavirus completes a steep retreat from the current infection levels, Miami-Dade’s mayor said Thursday.

Two weeks after restricting restaurant service to takeout and outdoor tables, Mayor Carlos Gimenez laid out the rough outlines of when that emergency order may be lifted and what rules would remain in place. His main measure will be the portion of COVID-19 tests in the general population that come back positive for the disease — a metric known as the “positivity” rate.

It’s at 20% now, according to the latest state figures. Gimenez said he won’t lift the indoor-dining ban until that rate falls to “between 5 and 10%.” Even when restaurants can open dining rooms again, hours will remain short by an existing decree that orders residents to remain home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“We may have curfew for a while,” Gimenez said. “To curtail social activities.”

Leon had pressed Gimenez on the restaurant order during a media event with U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. Standing behind reporters in the dining room at another Doral restaurant, Sergio’s, Leon asked why dining rooms were still open in Broward but closed in Miami-Dade.

“Our contagion level is higher,” Gimenez replied. Broward’s positivity rate on Thursday was 14%, according to state data.

“The problem with restaurants’ interior spaces is I don’t know of any way to eat without doing this,” Gimenez said while briefly pulling off his black Office of the Mayor mask. “It makes it an inherently risk proposition. ... We know it spreads much easier” inside.

The Adams visit was to promote Washington’s distribution of nearly 1 million cloth masks to Florida’s restaurant industry. Adams said the Trump administration has already provided free masks to hospitals, healthcare workers and nursing homes. “It’s recognizing this is where a lot of the spread is occurring, “Adams said of restaurants.

Carlos Gazitua, president of the family-owned Sergio’s chain, said the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association would be distributing the masks to establishments across the state. “This will help us keep our workers safe,” Gazitua told the dozens of media workers, restaurateurs, and government staff brought inside the Sergio’s dining room for the event.

Gimenez’s reopening plan came under fire in June and July as COVID-19 infections made the Miami area one of the nation’s hot spots for spread of the disease and hospitals reached capacity in tems of intensive-care beds. Gimenez lifted most business closures on May 18, and won approval by Gov. Ron DeSantis to let dining rooms operate at 50% capacity, double what was allowed at the time statewide.

The reopening followed two months of closures, and Karen Pino said her Coral Gables restaurant was still recovering from that shutdown when the second Gimenez order arrived July 9. Her La Taberna Giralda has a courtyard in the back, so outdoor seating is possible. But it hasn’t been an issue. “Nobody knows I have outdoor seating,” she said. “The second issue, obviously, is the rain. ... I can’t even offer, if they’re getting poured on, to come inside.”

Dressed in U.S. Public Health Service whites and wearing the same kind of mask given the restaurant industry (and pointing out his daughter likes to tie-dye hers), Adams warned about the risk of COVID spread in restaurants.

“One of the things we’re telling communities that have been hard hit by coronavirus is to avoid indoor gatherings as much as possible. To lower indoor dining, or to get rid of it altogether. To close bars. Why? Because that’s where the spread is occurring.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 7:32 PM.