Carmine's Restaurant re-opens after coronavirus

Carmine's Restaurant, an iconic Italian restaurant in Times Square is back up for business. The bustling neighborhood mainstay drew its re-opening for the day Broadway theaters timed their curtains for the first time in more than 18 months as a result of coronavirus pandemic.

The waiting tables were full of hungry diners — the restaurant's 480 seats were completely booked. There is a backlog of people who want to come out and celebrate at Carmine's. Reservations have been fantastic, said Yahoo Finance Live CEO of the Alicart Restaurant Group, parent company of Carmine's, Virgil's Real Barbecue and Artie’s in NYC.

Guests who make online reservations for bankers are also welcome. Dubbed the Key to NYC, the ordinance requires all people 12 and older to show proof of at least one dose of COVID - 19 vaccine.

Banks said restaurants in the Group were probably some of the safest places in the country to eat right now, with all employees required to be vaccinated as well.

However, although Bank and everyone in the restaurant industry welcomes the return of traffic to the Theater District, a potentially long recovery looms.

This week the House Committee on Small Businesses met to discuss budget reconciliation and while it approved legislation to provide $25 billion in funding for small business, the committee did not vote on a bill for a $60 billion refill into the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

Banks said such relief is needed, and workers want to come back to work. The government must step up and replenish the restaurant recovery fund. They put out a fund — 300,000 restaurants submitted applications for relief, only 100,000 got funded and 200,000 restaurants are waiting to get relief from Congress, he said. Small businesses don't stand a chance without government money. Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition tells Yahoo Finance that the situation is like having Groundhog Day, with events recurring the way they happened all over again.

With the rise of Delta variant, we have seen more dining restrictions, and sometimes a tremendous amount of consumer hesitancy. Restaurants are also facing mountains and mountains of debt in 18 months of operating at limited capacity, sometimes completely closed. Bank described it this way: It's like going through open heart surgery, and it's a good surgery, and then the next day, everyone thinking that you're fine, you're not, it's a slow recovery. Follow her on Twitter @ BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma yahoofinance.com.