The program has touched off opposition from the restaurant operators' trade group, however.
Independent restaurant operators, known as street accounts, are most vulnerable to such tactics.
The results were a bright spot in what was a dismal month for most restaurant operators.
Rising prices for restaurant food ranging from coffee and milk to beef and bread are pressuring restaurant operators.
But restaurant operators and others have started looking at the space, he said, though no lease has been signed.
But on the Amalfi coast, south of Naples, hotel and restaurant operators report only the most marginal downturn.
— Patrick Farrell Nation's Restaurant News: A monthly survey of the nation's restaurant operators reveals growing pessimism about the economy and the possibility for sales growth.
But restaurant operators in the chamber greeted parts of the commissioner's testimony with jeers, then were rebuked into silence, and some offered their own experiences with inspectors' visits.
More recent licenses have required restaurant operators to pay more than 10 percent to run parks department properties like the Boathouse, which pays 16.5 percent.
The invitation came from the Brody Corporation, a hydra-headed association or restaurant operators, whose responsibilities include L'Etoile, Gallagher's Steak House, & the Rainbow Room.
Still, the local restaurant operators said they were concerned about the effects of the outbreak on business, and several that reopened yesterday reported that business was way off.
