NORTHAMPTON — On Monday morning, restaurants will be able to allow more people inside for indoor dining.
Since the end of December, restaurants, gyms, and other businesses have been able to operate at up to 25% of their maximum capacity. Gov. Charlie Baker announced Thursday that because of a drop in COVID-19 infections, capacity can increase to 40% starting Monday at 5 a.m.
For some restaurants with a small space, the bump isn’t a big change.
A “15% addition is not really a lot,” said Neal Shipwash, the general manager at Riff’s Joint in Easthampton. “Thirty-two was our capacity at 25%. It’s going to take us to, like, 36,” he said. “Being a smaller restaurant, 15% of our seating really doesn’t account for (more than) four or five more people.”
He added, “We have a lot of takeaway business which has saved us. I think that’s one thing that’s kept us open.”
Employees at the restaurant have stayed healthy so far. “I do think we’re fortunate we haven’t had any COVID cases,” Shipwash said.
Northampton Brewery has been closed for several weeks. “January is the slowest month of the year for restaurants,” said Abby Martin, the manager. “We just decided to take a break and wait for the numbers to go down.”
When the business reopens this week, they will be able to increase their capacity from 40 people to 72.
“With the social distancing of tables and limited capacity, we are always full and busy,” Martin said.
The restaurant also hasn’t seen any COVID cases, Martin said. “We’re happy that the cases are starting to go down and restrictions are loosening a little.”
Andy Yee, one of the owners of the Bean Restaurant Group in Springfield, was happy about the loosening restriction.
“I see incredible promise that we are going the right way,” he said. It means that Johnny’s Tavern in Amherst and Johnny’s Roadside Diner in Hadley, two Hampshire County restaurants the group owns, will be able to seat about 60 customers each.
The pandemic has “devastated” the restaurant industry, he said. “You see the bad news out there of people closing down.”
When asked if the restaurants had cases of COVID, Yee said that three of the group’s 14 restaurants had minor cases.
Though the restrictions are loosening, not all restaurants will be expanding their capacity on Monday.
“It actually doesn’t really affect us,” said Meaghan Sullivan, the owner of Joe’s Cafe.
The restaurant is open for indoor dining at about 25% capacity — which is 19 customers — and doesn’t plan to increase that amount.
Without plexiglass barriers, there’s not enough space to distance in the restaurant to increase capacity to 40%, Sullivan said. Also, about a quarter of the restaurant is dedicated to takeout orders. Takeout is “certainly keeping us afloat,” she said.
She thinks the governor’s announcement does have an impact on customers. “I think it makes people a little more comfortable coming out,” she said.
Not everyone is comfortable with how the governor rolled out the change. State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, worries about people who can’t decide to not go inside a restaurant: the people who work there.
“I think that the story of kitchen staff is a story that we’re not really sharing,” she said. “You have people working in very tight close spaces, often with not a lot of separation between the kitchen and where people are eating. That does mean we should be paying attention to that and getting those people vaccinated more quickly,” she said.
Who is prioritized for the vaccine is ultimately the governor’s decision, she said.
At the same time, she said, “there hasn’t been the level of support from the state or federal government that I would have liked to have seen for our small businesses.”
Many people want to support local businesses, she said.
“Personally, I’ll be doing that via takeout.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.