After over 2 months of enforced lockdown and now meeting key public health metrics set by the state of California, Los Angeles County restaurants and bar can reopen for dine-in service effective May 29, 2020 by maintaining the safety guides for your venue. 

L.A. County’s new guidance states that restaurants need to run at 60% capacity, specifically for the next 21 days. While outdoor tables still need to keep six feet of distance between them, they won’t count toward the restaurant’s 60% capacity limit.

In terms of number of guests seated at the same table, no more than 6 people will be allowed to sit together.

Cloth face masks are required for diners when they are not eating and face shields should be worn by staff whenever they approach diners who have removed masks to eat. Employees’ face shields should be worn in addition to their own masks.

Here are a few more of L.A. County's more notable new rules:

• Customers must wear cloth face coverings to receive service. This applies to all adults and to children over the age of 2. Only individuals with chronic respiratory conditions or other medical conditions that make the use of a face covering hazardous are exempted from this requirement.
  

• Restrooms are to be checked regularly and cleaned and disinfected on an hourly basis.
  

• Self-service items such as condiment caddies, utensil caddies, napkins, lids, straws, to-go containers, etc. must be removed, with items provided by employees.

• Self-service food areas such as salsa bars, salad bars or buffet-style bars, including food sampling, must be removed.

• Refilling beverages at the table or from common containers (e.g. pitchers, carafes, decanters, bottles) is not allowed. Clean glassware must be provided for customer refills.

• Customer seating areas are to be cleaned and sanitized after each use.

• Takeout/leftover containers are to be filled by customers and available only upon request.

You can find a full list of L.A. County dine-in guidelines here.

We would like to share some additional and extremely useful resources for bar and restaurant owners working hard to reopen and restart their business.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued a detailed restaurant guidance and, if located within the City of L.A., restaurant and bar owners can review Mayor Eric Garcetti’s set of best practices.

According to the latest address by county Department of Public Health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, restaurant and bars can reopen as immediately as today, provided they follow the county's set of new, temporary regulations.

A great point to consider is that restaurants are in no way forced to reopen, but now have the options to do so.

As to L.A.’s own reopening, county and city officials had offered both vague timelines and specific timelines—such as a goal of July 4.

The reopening of dine-in service at Los Angeles County restaurants represents a great step towards the full reopening of the city. There is still set date on the full reopening of event venues and indoor and outdoor event spaces but we remain confident we will be able to help our clients book the perfect venue for their upcoming events soon.

Check out some of Piovra Group available event spaces for rent and feel free to reach out to our team to check availability and book one of our spaces for your next event.