Khadijah Khogeer / brookline@wickedlocal.com
On a sunny but cold Sunday morning on Beacon Street, a line of customers stretches outside Japonaise Bakery. The compact Brookline bakery only allows four customers in at a time, so others wait outside, spaced six feet apart, to place and pick up orders.
Japonaise Bakery is not alone: around town, local bakeries are seeing queues outside their storefronts as they grapple with social distancing and limited indoor occupancy.
As of Feb. 8, restaurants and close-capacity services in Massachusetts are limited to 40% capacity, according to the Brookline Health Department. Indoor capacity has increased from the 25% limit instituted in December 2020.