Restaurants expand onto Ocean Drive roadway as they reopen after COVID-19 closures

Miami’s bicyclists are used to sharing the road. Just not with restaurant patrons.

As dine-in service was allowed to resume in Miami Beach on Wednesday, restaurants expanded their outdoor seating onto the closed-off Ocean Drive, providing business owners a way to maximize their capacity and offering al fresco dining to crowds tired of being cooped up.

The city has issued seven permits to Ocean Drive restaurants to expand their outdoor seating as part of a new pilot program meant to make the coronavirus recovery easier for business owners.

Under Miami Beach rules, adopted from Miami-Dade County, restaurants must limit their indoor capacity to 50 percent. But eateries can reach full capacity by using outdoor seating, as long as tables are six feet apart and limited to four guests each, if guests do not live in one household. Masks are required for entry, but may be taken off while eating.

City officials loosened dine-in restrictions imposed in mid-March, which aimed to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The virus-fighting effort, recommended by health experts, devastated Miami Beach’s tourism and hospitality industries and led business owners to lay off thousands. City officials say the presence of the virus in Miami-Dade County continues to diminish, as evidenced by the decreasing rate of hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases in the county.

“The virus is only going downward now because we implemented so many measures that effectively reversed its direction,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said in a video address Wednesday. “Because of our diligence and because of this downward trajectory, we are slowly and cautiously opening up our economy.”

With restaurants still closed where he lives, New York bartender Phil Banach smiled as he sipped a sugary cocktail at the Pink Taco along Ocean Drive Wednesday afternoon.

The 31-year-old took an impromptu vacation to the Miami area to get his mind off the coronavirus. He’s staying in downtown Miami but ventured out to South Beach when he heard restaurants would reopen to diners.

“For a while it was almost like a ghost town,” he said.

Nearby Washington Avenue remained open to traffic Wednesday in spite of city plans to shut down ten blocks of the street for outdoor dining.

That’s because the Washington Avenue Business Improvement District lobbied against the planned closures, which had been scheduled to begin Tuesday, said the district’s executive director, Troy Wright.

Wright said the customary procession of luxury cars idling along South Beach, and sometimes parking in front of Washington Avenue restaurants adds to the allure of the city’s entertainment district.

“It’s the glitz of Miami Beach,” he said. “You come here to see that and to feel that.”

About 60 percent of restaurants on the street reopened Wednesday, but Wright said others are waiting for tourism to pick back up before opening up shop again.

“It’s good to be hopeful and be wishful, but we also have to be realistic,” he said. “The reality is tourism is down. That means the bookings are down at the hotels. Obviously it trickles down to them in the restaurant industry.”

Lincoln Road restaurants resume dine-in service

Not bad for “a Wednesday in a pandemic” is how the head of Lincoln Road’s business arm described the first day back for restaurants along the South Beach promenade following two months of coronavirus closures.

There was an “excitement in the air” in South Beach on Wednesday, as modest crowds trickled back into restaurant seats, set six feet apart and mostly in the open air, said Timothy Schmand, executive director of the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District.

A little over half of Lincoln Road’s restaurants and ice cream shops reopened Wednesday, Schmand said, while others may be waiting for beaches and hotels to open back up before digging themselves deeper into a financial hole.

At Tapelia, a Spanish restaurant on Lincoln Road, sangria flowed and sizzling steak was served as a dozen diners enjoyed an al fresco lunch. You couldn’t tell from behind their masks, but restaurant employees seemed happy to be back on the job.

“Today with all the energy and positivity that we have, we were able to bring back all of our employees without leaving any of them without a job,” said general manager Reinaldo Leones. “There aren’t that many customers today, but the crowds will return once their fears subside.”