Restaurants are back open Chicago and surrounding suburbs back open again this weekend after being shot some of them since the end of October. So how to go? We asked Lucan Ellis about that. A little earlier. He told us there was big demand that his places and from the folks he talked to across the restaurant community. A lot of people just wanted to get out, and it's sort of feel what it's like to be in a restaurant again. And I don't blame him. It's doing it safely 25% capacity, But here we go. Alderman Brendan Riley has been an advocate for the restaurants to reopen. Ottoman. How you doing? How you doing this afternoon? I'm doing great. How you been? All right, you know? Hey, this does feel like a little bit of a Return to doing some of things were used to do that sort of, you know. Help you get through things. Did you have a chance to survey the restaurant scene? It all. Check it out. What's going on in your ward? And I guess my question to you is what? What'd you see what you learn? Yeah, Of course I did. As you mentioned I've been advocating for trying to get a responsible and safe re opening for this industry for a long time. Um, obviously covet data has been one of the bad and the governor and the mayor. Didn't have a whole lot of options to support this industry. So I did want to see how the reopening Land, and I could tell you that I visited a lot of places not as a customer. But just to talk with managers, Chefs owners, Andre was some excitement. I got the sense for the first time in a long time. But there was some hope with people who really been teetering on the brink of collapse here. I didn't no fault of their own. And so, um, I think their customer base certainly showed their support, but what I saw was responsibly, socially distanced, limited capacity. Indoor service on Guy saw the operators obeying the rules, dutifully, a lot of mask usage, a lot of repeat, cleaning in those of the things that the city needs to see in every establishment for this to be successful in safe so Um, I know people. This has been a long time coming. We don't want to lose any of this ground, though. And so you know, my hope is that the general public continues to follow those basic rules that have been laid out by the CDC and others. S so that those statistics don't go upside down again. Because every time this industry has to shut down it really Takes an irreparable toll on them. So they're excited about rehiring their employees, bringing many of their employees back to work on. That is only good news for the local economy. So I do hope we can keep this going. Yeah, I do, too. I really do. I've been an advocate for this to happen to on it in a safe way for things to reopen. And when you talk to restaurant tours will tell you exactly what you just said. A. This doesn't save them. It's a lifeline a 25%. They can. They can hopefully make ends meet. But that you know they can't afford another closing, so they're gonna want to put it by by all the rules and all the health and safety protocols because they can't afford this shutdown. Startup shutdown startup thing that's killing him, too. There's something I want to ask you about the ultimate. I know. You look at a lot of the data here, and you're good. It's sort of parsing it. But when I hear from the restaurant folks and the people the leaders within that community, they come on the show, and they talk about how The data does not support that we've seen spreads really linked back to restaurants. Is that what you've been able to determine when when you look at it? Is that your read as well? That that is my read. I know that if you were to talk to an epidemiologist or or a doctor over Northwestern, then give the opinion that you know any of these venues are gonna, you know, potentially spread Cove it and I think that's been acknowledged. But Assed, far as being a super high risk and having been found to be the source of major spreading events that has not occurred in the in the hospitality in the restaurant industry. In any meaningful way, Certainly not new on the white. And so when you look at the data in our neighboring states that have been far more lax in their hospitality policies, some that have not really Ever shut down on do compare those two R's and the different peaks in in the spread. You don't see a direct correlation there between restaurants being open and spread where you see it are in group home settings where you see it, our private parties, Airbnb v hotel parties that have been occurring from time to time. Those are the kinds of things large family gatherings that have been absolutely proven to spread these things. And, um, I know you said it before listening to your show and people you've had on Why wouldn't you want to supervise people in social settings to make sure they are engaging in responsible? Distancing and wearing masks? So, um, I do think that, um they've been unfairly burdened with public health policies when a lot of other sectors have been allowed to Man open to relatively large groups of people..