Kane County Reporter

Restaurants in DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties have resumed limited indoor dining service, but for some, it doesn't make financial sense.

"All we got to do is make it through a few short months, keep a positive attitude, stay healthy and then spring will be back, and we will be back at it," Steve Moreau, owner of Babcock's Grove House, told ABC Chicago.

Moreau would have been able to resume indoor operations after the Illinois Department of Public Health moved the four counties to mitigations in the first tier.

The move was allowed because of a COVID-19 positivity rate between 6.5% and 8% for three days, improvement in available ICU beds and no continual increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The transition does come with several conditions that include requiring food service for bars to reopen. It also limits capacity to 25 people inside or 25% per room for businesses.

Moreau said he wished he could take advantage of the lifted restrictions, but from a financial and safety standpoint, it wouldn't be beneficial for them.

Other businesses are excited for the opportunity to reopen their doors and welcome customers back inside.

"We respect rules because we don't make the rules and we have to respect," Tony Zekjiri, co-owner of the Egg House, said.

Zekjiri was one entrepreneur looking forward to the positive change in tiers. It was Zekjiri's dream to open a restaurant. He and his business partner Bani Ismaili did just that in the middle of the pandemic.

"It is scary with the restrictions and stuff coming," Ismaili told ABC Chicago.

They said their business was doing well in September, but they had to shut down the next month. Zekjiri said it's been challenging as they work to keep their business afloat.

"Here in the States, if you work, you make it," Ismaili said. "In the middle of a pandemic, you make it, but you have to work."