Astoria Chef Dines Outside In Snowstorm After Indoor Dining Ban

ASTORIA, NY – A restaurant owner in Astoria is protesting new indoor dining bans by dining outdoors – in a snow storm.

Trattoria L'incontro Chef Rocco Sacramone posted a video of himself and three employees sitting down to eat dinner outside on Instagram Wednesday night as a snowstorm hit New York City.

"This is our first snowstorm of the year here, so I would like to thank New York City for this beautiful night here," Sacramone said as he lifted a glass of wine to cheers his colleagues. "So this is how we are going to be doing our outdoor dinner or outdoor lunch in New York City from today on since we are celebrating our first snowstorm."

On Friday week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced indoor dining in New York City would end this week due to increasing coronavirus hospitalization rates in the city. Outdoor dining, delivery and takeout is still allowed.

"Love NY but what a mess we are in," Sacramone wrote in the post. "We normally have 30 to 40, we are down to 5. This is real, this is the reality of every restaurant in NYC."