Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sweeping new mandate requiring customers to show proof of vaccination before dining inside was largely greeted as more of a carrot than a stick by the restaurant industry.

After weathering 17 months of shutdowns and different masking and contact tracing requirements, many restaurant owners said they’re relieved they can continue with indoor dining even though there are exemptions and unanswered questions.

“Will there be some awkward interactions? I'm sure there will be,” said Michael Fuquay, a co-owner of Queensboro in Jackson Heights. But he explained that a mandate from the government means he can deflect, telling a customer, “I haven't decided we have to check your vaccine, we've been told we have to check your vaccine.”

The NYC Hospitality Alliance also embraced the new vaccine requirement, considered the first in the country, while acknowledging that it would pose new obstacles for its roughly 4,000 dues-paying members in the restaurant and nightlife sectors. The organization says the city has more than 24,000 eating and drinking establishments, employing more than a quarter of a million people.

“We know that a mandated vaccine requirement will pose economic and operational challenges to restaurants, particularly in communities with lower vaccination rates and hesitancy,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance. “However it will also alleviate the burden that restaurants and bars face when implementing this policy voluntarily.”

The industry’s acceptance of the mandate comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges in New York and across the country. Business groups say requiring proof of vaccination is preferable to the alternatives. The Five-Borough Chamber Alliance called the mayor’s decision “a necessary step for businesses to continue serving customers safely and preventing more drastic restrictions and shutdowns that would again cripple the economy.”

Starting August 16th, proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine must be shown before entering a bar, restaurant, indoor performance space, or gym. Enforcement will begin September 13th. Patrons can present a paper CDC vaccination card, or share their vaccination status on an app, such as the state’s Excelsior pass, or the city’s new COVID Safe app, though at least one critic has pointed out the app’s inability to verify a persons’s vaccination status.

Jonathan Forgash, executive director of the group Queens Together, said his members will “continue working with elected officials and city agencies to educate and inform our restaurants on best practices and compliance."

Some opponents of mandatory vaccines said the plan goes too far. City Councilman Joe Borelli tweeted his opposition to the policy on the same day that the Daily News published his editorial saying vaccine mandates create “two classes of New Yorkers.”

Some scheduled a rally at City Hall. Others encouraged legal action.

Anita Trehan of Chaiwali restaurant in Harlem said she supported the mandate as a way to encourage more New Yorkers to get vaccinated. But she acknowledged some customers might not be happy. “We're going to have to work out an internal situation where we check for their information and we'll just have to train our staff to be very polite at all times but insistent,” she said.”

That’s a delicate balancing act, but some said it’s not so unfamiliar after dealing with other pandemic-era mandates, like mask-wearing and contact tracing.

“I’ll take the same mindset as like, if we’re out of the cheesecake,” said Ashwin Deshmukh, who owns the Bowery restaurant Short Stories. “I’m probably going to suggest something else.”

Restaurants could encourage customers without proof of vaccination to sit outside, if they have the space. But Deshmukh said he didn’t want to divide his patrons into different areas and might politely encourage them to take their meals to local parks.

The mayor didn’t specify how businesses are supposed to deal with these and other situations. On CBS This Morning, he said kids under 12, who are too young to be vaccinated, can eat inside with their parents, and can wear masks.

But Fuquay wondered about the bathroom policy.

“We’re legally required to have bathrooms that are available to guests,” he explained. “It seems obvious to me that people who are unvaccinated but dining outside will need to be allowed to enter the space in order to use the bathrooms and access hand-washing, but we’ll obviously want some clarification on that.”

Others want clarification on how to handle customers with religious or other exemptions from vaccines.

Dr. Rachael Piltch-Loeb, an expert in public health emergency preparedness affiliated with both the NYU School of Global Public Health and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said eating inside a restaurant, especially one with limited circulation, does carry a risk. But she also said, “Having a group of vaccinated individuals together dining inside, means less viral transmission is likely to occur even if someone happens to be infected.”

An unvaccinated person who uses the bathroom “will likely be the exception rather than the rule, so the risk they pose to a room of fully vaccinated people is non-zero but is mitigated with these policies.”

Businesses also want information about enforcement and new fines. Jeffrey Bank, CEO of Alicart Restaurant Group, which owns Virgil’s and Carmine’s, said he was disappointed that when announcing the mandate, “the next words out of the mayor’s mouth were mostly about inspections-enforcement.”

The mayor said the Department of Health will be responsible for enforcement and the agency said “accommodations are a “standard part of any public health approach.” The DOH also said that prior to August 16th, it will be “getting more feedback, finalizing the policy, publishing it, and beginning to implement it.

“We’ll then spend most of a month educating people, going out to businesses, receiving calls from businesses, answering questions and concerns, making sure everyone understands the new approach. And then, on September 13th, during that week, we'll begin inspections and enforcement. So, we want to give businesses big and small a chance to get acclimated."

The Carmine’s location in Times Square is scheduled to reopen on September 14th, a day after enforcement begins for the new vaccine mandate. Bank said de Blasio should use his bully pulpit to call for more federal support because nearly 300,000 more restaurants applied for federal aid than the new restaurant program could fund.

The vaccine mandate is far more preferable to the restaurant industry than requiring a return to mask-wearing. “Masks were a terrible symbol of going backwards,” said Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, which advocates for the city’s business community.

She also acknowledged the mandate is a way of encouraging New Yorkers to get vaccinated, which will further reopen the economy. As of this month, almost 29% of city adults have never received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccination, falling short of herd immunity. “That’s why we wish this were a stronger federal mandate,” she said, not just local.

The health club industry also expressed support for the city’s policy as a way to return to normal. A spokesperson for the fitness chain Crunch said its clubs will “be working through the operational elements of this requirement” over the next week, and provide members “additional details.” She didn’t say how vaccination information will be stored or gathered.

“We know that vaccines are a critical tool against COVID-19 and for getting us out of this pandemic,” added Helen Durkin, executive vice president of public policy for the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. “So too is exercise.”

Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering the city’s recovery efforts at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethfertig.