Indoor Dining Returns To Long Valley. Will The Patrons?

LONG VALLEY, NJ - After long last 25 percent capacity is allowed inside restaurants, gyms, theaters and other performance venues and Patch asked some prospective patrons what they would do now that the restrictions have loosened.

"We've been frequenting the local restaurants and enjoying eating outdoors until the weather turns too cold to do so," Long Valley resident Elaine Rizzotto said. "We did eat indoors at Lake Placid, NY and they did a great job of keeping the tables to 25 percent capacity so we felt safe enough to eat indoors at their establishments. If the restaurants follow the public health guidelines we'll have no issue with eating indoors at their establishments."

While he does enjoy eating outdoors, fellow Long Valley resident Greg Michaels said he has no concerns about eating indoors now when it's just too hot or raining.

"It will be a necessity anyway when it's get too cold unless you're going to eat at home until next spring," he said. "Hopefully this will save some more local restaurants."

Long Valley Mayor Matt Murello said he was very excited that the Governor allowed for indoor dining and gyms to reopen.

"These industries are hanging on by a thread. They will likely need to hire back their entire staff to make indoor dining work and limiting their seating capacity to 25 percent is not economically sustainable," he said. "So I’m hoping that the Governor will continue this trend of reopening New Jersey and when no increase is COVID cases are evident, he reduces his restrictions to allow for additional seating."

But not everyone will be spending time in a local eatery.

"I'm sticking to take out since I'm in a high risk group," Irene Sergonis said.

But for his part, Murello is ready to experience his restored freedoms.

"My plans this week are to get back to my gym, and not workouts in my garage, and dine out locally on Friday and I couldn't be happier about it," he said.

How about the rest of Long Valley? Do you plan on dining indoors soon? Let us know in our comments.

Thanks for reading! Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Have a news tip you'd like to share? Or maybe you have a press release you would like to submit or a correction you'd like to request? Send an email to russ.crespolini@patch.com

Subscribe to your local Patch newsletter. You can also have them delivered to your phone screen by downloading, or by visiting the Google Play store.