A New York City restaurant is the first in the city to create a 100% COVID-tested space, but for a price.
Starting on Nov. 24, City Winery, located at 25 11th Ave, will require a rapid COVID-19 test for all patrons and employees upon entry on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for the remainder of 2020 for this pilot program. The tests will be performed onsite at the restaurant and will cost $50 per person.
“We believe that hospitality is all about making our customers comfortable and given the pandemic, that is all about feeling safe. Given the change of the seasons, finding the next level of safety and comfort level for people to dine indoors is critical for us today,” said Michael Dorf, Founder and CEO of City Winery.
Upon arrival, guests will participate in the mandatory wellness check, then receive a shallow nasal swab by a certified practitioner. Guests will receive a glass of City Winery Bubbles while they wait for their test results. If the rapid result is negative, the guest will be welcome to enter with their mask in place and social distancing will be enforced by staff. If positive, City Winery will offer a PCR test sent to a partnered CLIA lab and 24 hours to validate the results, but the individual will not be permitted to enter the premises.
All employees will be tested daily before entering, ensuring that all individuals on the premises have tested negative for COVID that day. Once inside, the restaurant’s existing rigorous health and safety standards will continue to be upheld, including mandated mask wearing unless seated and eating, customer temperature checks, Merv-13 air filtration, high ceilings, and social distancing.
“A COVID-19 test is one of the only solutions to get patrons inside restaurants for the next 5 months until the springtime,” said Dorf.
City Winery will be utilizing Antigen tests with BD Veritor analyzers, which provide greater than 99% accuracy for negative results. City Winery and Accurex Diagnostic Services, LLC/Sema 4 Inc. are working to integrate the results with a variety check-in programs such as Clear and RXR for a more touchless check-in process including multiple clinical variables as well as point-of-care testing.
“We are thrilled to arrange state-of-the-art science to support the restaurant industry and the innovative process being pioneered at City Winery,” Accurex’s CEO Dr. David Reese stated.
Reservations will be required with a test pre-payment via Resy.com. There will be 15 minute testing windows starting at 4:30 p.m., and slots will be limited to 10 people per window in an effort to avoid crowding. Testing windows will be available starting Nov. 18. There will be no exceptions to entry without the certification of a negative test result by Accurex. The restaurant will remain open Thursday through Monday nights, and continue to enforce their rigorous health and safety protocols.
