Great info out all the new rules from Eater LA by Farley Elliott
Today’s the day. For weeks, restaurants around Los Angeles have been confined to takeout and delivery service only, as coronavirus cases skyrocketed and COVID-19 deaths surged around Southern California, dropping intensive care unit bed capacity to effectively zero and running healthcare workers to their limits. Now those numbers are projected to begin a steady decreases as LA emerges from its worse wave of pandemic cases yet, at least according to state public health officials who announced the reopening of on-site outdoor dining and a return to the previously-used color-coded, multi-tiered lockdown system first implemented last summer.
That’s all to say: Outdoor dining is back in Los Angeles County today. So what the heck are the rules for restaurants this time around?
For one, outdoor seating capacity is capped at 50 percent of previous levels, a return to the same limitations placed on restaurants just before the broader lockdowns in late November 2020. Restaurants with an established certificate of occupancy have a limit to the number of people that they are allowed to safely seat, meaning even those spots that managed to earn new permitting under Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Al Fresco program have a new, firm number of diners that can be sat at any given time.
Plenty of operators without previous outdoor seating have opted instead to simply throw some tables and chairs onto the sidewalk without permitting during the ongoing pandemic, but beware: Los Angeles County health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer has said that enforcement of coronavirus-related protocols will be more robust this time around, meaning infractions could be levied against restaurants who are over-seating customers.
Read full article Here on Eater LA.