Albany, Corvallis Burgerville dining rooms open | Local

The blue-red Burgerville logo has become the latest sign of softening coronavirus restrictions after the Vancouver, Washington-based fast-casual food chain reopened its Albany and Corvallis stores to indoor dining.

Burgerville announced on March 17 it had reopened lobbies at 16 restaurants in Oregon and Washington, including Albany. The Corvallis store was among five more stores that had opened by Wednesday, March 23, according to a news release.

The retailer planned to open the remaining 19 of its 40 restaurants by the end of April, Burgerville officials stated in the release.

The retailer closed dining rooms for about two years, selling food through takeout and drive-thru windows while Oregon enacted, then lifted indoor dining bans throughout one of the deadliest pandemics in US history. COVID-19 so far has killed just over 7,000 in the state.

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Indoor dining was banned for a week in Linn county, that ban lifting in early May 2021 as hospitalizations statewide surged then slowed.

Advocacy and lobbying organization Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association claimed around the same time that more than 1,000 restaurants had closed under pandemic-related recession and restrictions.

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State officials appeared to balk at further indoor dining restrictions but required businesses to enforce masking until lifting its mandate March 12 in line with California and Washington as hospitalizations fell to 261.

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