Just a day after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker loosened restrictions for restaurants, Worcester's City Manger issued an executive order reversing the changes. City Manager Ed Augustus is keeping limits to six people per table and prohibiting the use of bar seating in city restaurants. 

The Governor upped table limits to ten and opened up some bar seating. The city's order came as a shock to some restaurant owners like the Compass Tavern's Dave Domenick, who says the bar was 80% of their business before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"I'm very close with a lot of my competitors. They're still my friends that have restaurants and bars. Then within hours, it was literally hours, the city pulled the rug from under us. I guess it's not to mess up the restaurant business even more, it's for public safety. But it still hurts," Domenick said in an interview Friday.

It's a similar story at Suney's Pub. Owner Dan Kachadoorian says it has been difficult, but he was not going to change the seating even if the city manager allowed it. Kachadoorian says it would lead to fewer total seats and having partitions would ruin the environment of the restaurant 

"We definitely don't want to see the partitions have to be put up and I just think the six feet with the bar stools you really can't hardly put anyone at the bar so we are better off the tables adjacent to the bar where at least you can have two people sit and have something to eat and have a drink," he says.

Kachadorrian says since the pandemic alcohol sales have dropped dramatically and affected nearly half of his business.