INDIANAPOLIS — It'll be a little longer before the city takes back parking spaces along Massachusetts Avenue and other parts of the city from restaurants, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be dining on them even if there is a warm spell.
"With the weather breaking, this is going to be the make or break for the outdoor dining," said Ricky Tindell with the Thunderdome Restaurant Group.
Thunderdome Restaurant Group owns The Eagle and Bakersfield on Mass Ave.
As mandates cut their indoor dining space in half, the City of Indianapolis donated parking spaces for restaurants to expand outdoor dining.
The initial plan called for that to end Nov. 30, but that's been extended.
In a statement, the Department of Public Works said, "Businesses that had already opted in to the outdoor dining portion of DineOut Indy will be allowed to keep their outdoor dining space until Jan. 1, 2021."
Despite the extra month, Thunderdome said it may take the tents down this week.
"These tents are anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 a month in rental fees and then you include heaters on top of that and then they have to be very specific heaters; you can't have open flames," Tindell explained.
The high costs come while business is down.
"We're kind of trending around the 40 percent to 50 percent down," he said.
The Eagle is trying everything possible to stay afloat.
That includes promoting pick-up and catering orders for holiday gatherings along with adjusting hours.
"We changed our hours. We're opening a little earlier and closing a little earlier. We were open until 11, but we noticed there's nobody downtown after 10 o'clock so we're opening at 3 o'clock now and at The Eagle at least we're going to be offering carryout starting at 2 o'clock so that gives us two additional hours," Tindell explained.