Restaurant Restrictions in the Nation’s 15 Largest Cities as of March 2021

As winter turns to spring, most cities across the US are opening or expanding indoor dining. Some, like Houston and Dallas, have thrown caution to the wind and are reopening fully with masking and social distancing left to the discretion of the restaurants. Others remain hyper-vigilant, like Los Angeles, which currently permits no indoor dining, but may be moving to 25% capacity within the next week. Most are somewhere in between. Here is a list of restaurant restrictions in the nation’s 15 largest cities as of March 9^th, 2021.

                                 Indoor
                                 Dining                   Outdoor                                       Social
City                         Capacity                Dining              Masks              Distancing

New York                    35%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Los Angeles                 0%                   Yes                  Required         Required

Houston                      100%               Yes                  At discretion   At discretion

Chicago                       50%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Dallas                          100%               Yes                  At discretion   At discretion

Washington DC          25%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Miami                           50%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Philadelphia                50%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Atlanta                          35%                 Yes                  Required         Required

* Phoenix                     100%               Yes                  Required         Required

* Boston                       100%               Yes                  Required         Required

San Francisco             25%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Detroit                         50%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Seattle                          25%                 Yes                  Required         Required

Denver                         50%                 Yes                  Required         Required

* Some cities like Boston and Phoenix allow 100% capacity but maintain a requirement that there be at least 6 feet distance between tables, which effectively lowers capacity by lowering the number of tables that will fit into the space.

Image credit

Photo by Bimo Luki on Unsplash