New York City vaccine mandate presents new challenges for restaurants

Starting Monday, New York City will become the first major U.S. city to impose a vaccination requirement for indoor dining, leaving restaurant operators across the five boroughs with a host of new challenges to tackle.

Prompted by the surge in new Covid-19 cases tied to the delta variant, the city is requiring proof of at least one vaccine dose for a number of indoor activities, including dining, fitness clubs and attending indoor performances in New York City, making it the first major U.S. city to impose such restrictions. Employees of those venues are also required to be vaccinated. Following a few weeks to transition, enforcement is slated to start Sept. 13.

The policy is gaining traction. On Thursday, San Francisco followed New York’s lead, implementing its own vaccination requirement for indoor activities that will go into effect in Aug. 20. The California city’s mandate differs slightly from New York’s by requiring proof of full vaccination but allowing two months for employers to verify their workers’ status. Los Angeles is considering a similar plan.

As more vaccine mandates come from localities and the eateries themselves, Booking Holdings‘ OpenTable has rolled out a feature that allows restaurants to display their Covid inoculation requirements to customers. The reservation service also plans to publish a national list of restaurants that require proof of vaccination.

Inevitably, New York’s mandate will have a learning curve. But restaurants are also still waiting on more detailed guidance from city officials, like how much information they need to collect and record from customers.

“I feel like it’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all come Monday, where customers and restaurants aren’t really going to know what’s happening with this,” said Art Depole, who co-owns a Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes franchise with his brother Nick in midtown Manhattan.

Chipotle Mexican Grill CEO Brian Niccol told the Washington Post on Wednesday that the the city should figure out how the vaccination requirement applies to people who can’t be inoculated for medical or religious reasons. Otherwise, they’ll be left out of the workforce.

Labor has been an ongoing challenge for the industry, which needs all the workers it can get. Restaurants have turned to raising wages and offering retention bonuses to attract new workers, but the unemployment rate for eating and drinking places was still 8.4% nationwide in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Depole said that more than half of his Mooyah employees are vaccinated. However, he’s seeing vocal pushback from a handful of his unvaccinated workers, who are threatening to quit if the inoculation becomes a term of their employment. Enforcing the mandates also puts the burden on his staff, who would have to handle noncompliant customers.

And checking for proof of vaccination could also mean scheduling an extra worker just to stand by the door throughout the shift, adding to restaurants’ rising labor…