Restaurant owners from around the state sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday urging him to allow indoor dining sooner than June 20.
More than 550 restaurants signed on to the letter from the Connecticut Restaurant Association to the governor. Wednesday was the original day the restaurant owners asked Lamont to open limited indoor dining.
They are now asking the governor to reconsider his decision and allow restaurants to begin offering indoor dining on Wednesday, June 10.
The June 10 date will be three weeks since outdoor dining began and 86 days since restaurants were forced to shut down as part of the governor's coronavirus executive orders.
The Connecticut Restaurant Association warned Lamont that more and more restaurants are likely to fold if they wait any longer.
"Right now, every day counts for our industry. Opening indoor service before the 20th will mean the difference for other restaurants, for their employees, and for our economy," the letter read.
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The restaurant owners pointed to Rhode Island's decision to reopen to limited indoor dining and to Connecticut's falling COVID-19 metrics as reasons to reconsider the June 20 date.
On Thursday, Gov. Lamont said he planned to stick with his decision to begin outdoor dining on June 20.
"I've just seen tens of thousands of people protesting in New York City - thousands more in Boston. Neither of them have opened up any of their restaurants - they haven't even opened for outdoor dining that I know of as yet," Lamont said. "So I want to be very careful before we open our restaurants and invite people from the whole region here."
