Northwest Wayne News

Michigan restaurant owners are "excited" to welcome customers back for indoor dining, although there will be health and safety restrictions in place.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will allow customers to be served inside restaurants as of Feb. 1 -- with limitations. Those rules include a 10 p.m. curfew and social-distancing measures, and capacity is capped at 25%, with a maximum 100 guests allowed inside a restaurant.

Whitmer had shut down indoor dining for a second time before Thanksgiving because of a spike in positive COVID-19 cases. Michigan's COVID-19 positivity rate has improved significantly since then, dropping from 13.1% to 6.1%, according to Bridge Michigan.

Michigan is one of the last states in the country to reopen indoor restaurant service.  Business owners had hoped they'd be allowed to open with a 50% capacity, which is what they had prior to the November shutdown. Even though they'll only be allowed half of that, restaurant owners hope Michigan is now headed towards allowing eateries to operate at 100%. Whitmer has said that allowing more than 25% capacity would rely solely on a continued lower case count.

Johnny Brann, Jr., owner of Kitchen 67 in Grand Rapids, said he's anxious to have some customers eat in his restaurant.

"It is going to be not that much more helpful as far as financials go," Brann told Bridge Michigan. "We'll still be struggling to pay our bills and maintain our business models. We're geared for 100% occupancy."

The industry as a whole has been hit hard financially because of pandemic-related restrictions. The National Restaurant Association reported that 110,000 establishments have closed temporarily or permanently.  It also recorded job losses in 46 states and $240 billion in lost sales. Michigan has reported 205,000 lost jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry, as of December. Under the current capacity limitations, jobs in the restaurant business aren't expected to recover quickly.