ALBANY COUNTY — “We have a dark winter ahead of us,” said Melissa Fleischut, president and chief executive officer of the New York State Restaurant Association.

“I’ve never seen restaurants choose to hibernate before,” she said, using a newly-coined term for restaurants that have simply closed shop for the winter.

With the statewide shutdown in March to stem the spread of COVID-19, she said, 80 percent of restaurant workers were furloughed; 527,000 restaurant workers across the state were laid off.

In March alone, she said, restaurants in New York State lost $1.9 billion; by April, that loss totaled $3.6 billion, she said.

Outdoor dining “really helped in the summer,” Fleischut said. But that is not possible in most of New York in the winter, Fleischut said, as she spoke at an Albany County press conference on Dec. 16, before a massive snowstorm had blanketed the area.

New York City, by executive order, has had to cease all indoor dining. Restaurants in the Capital Region have a maximum of 50-percent capacity for indoor dining.

Fleischut posited that, since the governor had announced that 74 percent of COVID-19 cases were contracted through “living-room spread,” that is, people having small gatherings in their homes, restaurants would be safer places for gatherings.

She noted that restaurants, unlike hosts at home, must follow state guidance on social distancing and mask-wearing.

“Our guests and our staffs, they’re our first priority,” she said.

“You don’t expect your friend’s house to have the same rules and guidelines as restaurants …,” said Fleischut. “We do think it’s safer inside a restaurant,” she said, citing the state numbers on contact tracing that showed fewer than 2 percent of cases came from restaurants compared to over 70 percent at in-home gatherings.

The months ahead will be crucial for the industry’s survival, she said.

Fleischut also said she was grateful for Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy’s recent emergency order to cap at 15 percent fees for third-party companies to deliver restaurant fare. 

Some companies were taking as much as 30 percent away from the local restaurants, Fleischut said.

She said her association would prefer a statewide cap, rather than relying on county by county legislation.

She also said the association is putting together a large package of requests for the state, including the “alcohol to go” executive order being made permanent, and help with business-interruption insurance. “Claims are being denied left and right,” Fleischut said.

Her restaurant association supports Governor Andrew Cuomo’s micro-cluster approach, placing restrictions on areas with COVID-19 outbreaks as opposed to a statewide shutdown, she said.

On Saturday, Cuomo issued an executive order that extends until March the sales-tax deadline for restaurants in orange zones that have been required to suspend indoor dining.

Fleischut also said, without federal help, there is no hope restaurants can hang on as outdoor dining is not feasible for upstate restaurants.

“They just don’t see it as a viable option,” she said.

Although take-out has been key to restaurants’ survival, it is not enough, she said.