Share Many pandemic features are ongoing at restaurants, including streetery seating. Pictured: "chateaus" at Le Diplomate. Photograph by Jeff Elkins Restaurateurs are calling it a “grand reopening”—DC lifts capacity limits and the strictest Covid regulations on bars and restaurants today, May 21. Most notably, indoor dining rooms can be filled to capacity without social distancing, masks are no longer required for vaccinated individuals, bartenders can serve seated patrons at the bar, and a myriad of social activities—from billiards to live music and axe throwing—are now permitted. Regulations on bars and nightclubs are also being loosened significantly. Nightclubs are allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity until June 11, when they’re allowed to open up entirely. Bars with a tavern license can go to full capacity today. Meanwhile in Montgomery County, which has maintained the strictest Covid regulations in Maryland, restaurants are now allowed to serve at 75 percent capacity (and may go to 100 percent in early June).