New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ate lunch at The Meatball Shop in Manhattan's Greenwich Village Saturday, four days after Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer reportedly dined there and one day after the restaurant temporarily closed for a Health Department inspection.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, who joined de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, for the meal, shared a photo on Twitter:
In a subsequent tweet, Bassett said the Meatball Shop's owner, Daniel Holzman, told her there was a line down the block when it reopened for business Friday night, adding that it was his "proudest day as a New Yorker."
As news of Spencer's case -- and the activities he partook in during the days leading up to his diagnosis -- spread through New York City, authorities have gone out of their way to ensure residents that the establishments he visited before he tested positive for Ebola are safe to patronize.
In addition to his meal at The Meatball Shop, de Blasio went out of his way to take the subway on Friday, as did New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who last week announced the transit system would be subject to random Ebola drills.
Spencer rode the A, 1 and L trains Wednesday evening before experiencing a fever and diarrhea the next morning, sparking unfounded fears that other MTA passengers risked contracting the virus. Ebola can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of a patient presently exhibiting symptoms, and officials maintain Spencer showed no signs of the disease until Thursday.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Borough President Eric bowled at Williamsburg's Gutter on Saturday, which Spencer also visited Wednesday evening. The bowling alley had reopened a few hours earlier after shutting down Thursday night for a cleaning and health inspection.
Like The Meatball Shop, The Gutter took to social media to thank its followers for an outpouring of support. "We can't tell you how much your support has meant to us, but now we are happy to get back to being your little neighborhood bowling alley," a Facebook post read.
On Friday, New Yorkers riding the A train and milling about at Bellevue Hospital, where Spencer is currently being held in isolation, told The Huffington Post that they weren't worried about Ebola. "I am as nervous as any prudent concern would make me," Davis Marcey-Neil, a writer taking the A train, said. "I'm a New Yorker. We can handle it."
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