BOSTON — Restaurants are busier than they have been in months thanks to Valentine’s Day weekend.
“First time going out in a while since coronavirus, so hopefully today will be a good one,” said Kevin Nardone, who was going out to dinner on Saturday.
A lot of people are using Valentine’s Day as an excuse to finally get out of the house for a date night, and restaurant owners like Frank DePasquale are thankful for that extra boost to business especially now that the state allowed them to increase their capacity from 25% to 40% just last week.
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“We’re so grateful that it came before Valentine’s Day because we could have never survived Valentine’s Day with the 25% margin,” DePasquale said.
DePasquale owns seven restaurants in Boston’s North End, including Mare Oyster Bar. He said, to accommodate more parties on this busy weekend, they’re opening earlier than usual.
“We scattered all our reservations. We opened our book so people could come in for lunch, they could come in for dinner and maybe a little bit of a late-night,” DePasquale said.
That curfew has also been lifted, allowing restaurants to stay open past 10 p.m. DePasquale said those recent changes are a big step forward.
“Twenty-five percent was really, really tough on the restaurant business. You really can’t pay your bills with 25%,” DePasquale said. “But being at 40%, it gives you that little extra something that we can keep our occupancy and our safety measures all in place.”
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After this weekend the next big boost will be when the weather gets nice again for outdoor seating.
“It’s not back to normal, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” DePasquale said.
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