TOLEDO, Ohio — Restaurants and bars in Toledo are getting some help from the city to bring in more customers while still keeping everyone safe.
While exact street closures are still being worked out, starting June 6, certain sections of a few streets in both downtown and uptown Toledo will be blocked off for restaurants to put seating in the streets. The closures will start in June and happen on Wednesdays and Saturdays for the foreseeable future.
"Having us be able to, you know a couple days a week expand and add those tables back would definitely be helpful," said Michael Knight, owner of Home Slice Pizza.
Home Slice has has both patio seating and indoor tables but Michael said even with that, his ability to maximize customers is limited.
"A lot of businesses including myself are losing tables, so that drops obviously our revenue because we can't have as many people. So giving us a bigger footprint to help us get our revenue back to where it might have been normally could help."
Restaurants all throughout Toledo are also allowed to set up chairs in their parking lots and on sidewalks. On June 1, the city plans to extend DORA hours and allow restaurants to have live entertainment for customers. Any restaurant not in the DORA range can't serve alcohol outside until they apply with Ohio Department of Liquor Control. Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is reminding any restaurant or customer planning to partake in these opportunities to keep distance and be responsible
"If we see allowing streets to be blocked off is promoting a block party festival sort of atmosphere, we'll stop doing this," said Kapszukiewicz.
The Wednesday street closures will last from 5-10 p.m. and the Saturday closures from 12-10 p.m.
