California Indoor Dining Set to Reopen Today In Some Counties

In California, today marks the first day in seven weeks since July 13th, 2020 that certain counties can begin to reopen their indoor dining operations at limited capacity.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced at a press conference last week that the state will launch a “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” which assigns a color code to each county based on case rate and positivity rate. The corresponding color will determine which businesses will be allowed to reopen and the capacity constraints.

Counties with a purple color code are considered ‘widespread’ and will continue to have outdoor dining only with bars still closed. The next tier is red or ‘substantial’ and allows for 25% capacity or less than 100 people maximum inside. 

Bars cannot open until their county is designated with an orange color code for ‘moderate’ that allows for outdoor service only. Restaurants are allowed to be at 50% capacity and wineries can allow 25% indoor capacity at the orange level. The final stage, 'moderate', allows for bars, restaurants, and wineries to allow 50% maximum occupancy with only wineries being capped to 200 people or less. 

The full rules on county by county guidance can be viewed here and the map of where the state of California is below.