LA Restaurant Owners Thrilled To Resume Outdoor Dining

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Outdoor dining returned to the county Friday after a two-month shutdown, to the delight of restaurant owners.

Angela Marsden, the owner of  Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, who went viral for protesting the closing of outdoor dining, said she is thrilled to be able to take customers again.

"Obviously, I'm extremely happy to see my community and my guests," said Marsden Saturday. "There was no consistency to the closures."

After outdoor dining was re-opened, many locals came out to support their favorite restaurants.

"I feel like the restaurants have been robbed a little bit considering shopping indoors is still open, so I definitely get their pain," said patron Melissa Redondo Saturday.

But the openings come with a new restriction, forcing restaurants to turn off or remove all televisions from customer seating areas, a clear effort to prevent gatherings of sports fans.

The county's revised Health Officer Order also reinstates previous restrictions on outdoor dining: requiring servers to wear masks and face shields, limiting restaurants to 50 percent of patio capacity, limiting tables to no more than six people from the same household, and requiring tables to be at least eight feet apart.

But the order also states: "Televisions or any other screens that are used to broadcast programming must be removed from the area or turned off. This provision is effective until further notice."

The provision is directly aimed at preventing gatherings of sports fans, particularly with the Super Bowl approaching on February 7.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)