ITHACA, NY (WENY) - Aurora Street in Ithaca has become the "Aurora Streatery", as the road on "Restaurant Row" has been shut down to allow restaurants to expand their outdoor dining.

While restaurants are not expanding into the street, they are expanding onto the sidewalk to allow for extra seating. John O'Leary, owner of The Ithaca Ale House, says, "I think it's great. Basically, Aurora Street is now just one big sidewalk." 

With limited outdoor seating prior to the expansion, O'Leary says the extra space on the sidewalk now available to restaurants on North Aurora between East State Street and East Seneca has been valuable. He says, "We're running at 50% (capacity) inside, so expanding the outside is nice. It's been very helpful."

Other restaurants taking advantage of the expanded dining are Simeon's American Bistro, the Mahogany Grill, Red's Place, and Luna's Inspired Street Food. 

O'Leary believes the expansion is a win-win for the restaurants, and the customers. He says, "It's more just to help out restaurant row, it's really taken a hit these last 3 months. Whether you chose to do delivery or not, or just take-out, it's just nice to see people out and around and I think that's the biggest thing. People just seeing people again and enjoying feeling just a little bit of normalcy."

There are certain guidelines that need to be followed. When dining inside or outside, customers must wear a mask until seated. Once seated, you can take the mask off. Any time a customer gets up to walk around, they must put the mask back on. O'Leary adds, "We encourage you to wear your mask when you order, so that causes a few problems because it's really hard to hear people with a mask on, but once you're eating and socializing with the group you came in with, it's fine."

O'Leary says customers have been very considerate during this new experience. He says, "A lot of kind customers, understanding that there are five more steps to serving somebody than there were three months ago. It's all about all the cleaning, and the sanitizing, steps in between, the challenges the servers have with masks." 

The Ithaca Ale House is also using paperless menus, so customers don't have to touch the same menus, and they don't have to waste paper by throwing menus away. A bar code is provided at each table. Customers take out their camera to scan the code, and The Ithaca Ale House website pops up with an updated menu.