NYC Indoor Dining Returns, Again.

It's been a bleak winter for New Yorkers craving a meal beyond take-out or a street-side pop-up, but hope springs eternal. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that indoor dining would return on Valentine's Day, Eater New York reports.

"Twenty-five percent is better than zero and that's where we are now," said Cuomo during the press conference. "If hell develops and the sky falls and a new variant explodes onto the scene, then we'll have the opposite problem."

In light of the Super Bowl over the weekend, New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio tweeted this warning, highlighting the week's positivity rate at over 8%:

Contact tracing has been an issue since the onset of the pandemic, but the city's restaurant industry cited a limited data report, indicating that "restaurants and bars accounted for 1.43 percent of COVID-19 cases recorded between September through the end of November," according to Eater.

A walk around New York City will reveal plenty of empty dining establishments – more than 1,000 – that couldn't weather the storm, while many more have chosen to temporarily close until spring and more consistent weather for outdoor dining.

For New Yorkers (or anyone else) not interested in public, there are plenty of ways to spend Valentine's Day at home, including a customized gift, a healthy home-cooked meal, or sexy underwear or lingerie.