With New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordering indoor dining to close again in the Big Apple, restaurant owners already feeling the coronavirus squeeze are worried about laying off workers -- right before the holidays.

“I kept my place fully staffed for as long as I could, but I was bleeding money,” Michael Vendome, who owns Nino’s 46 and Nino’s AQ Italian restaurants in Manhattan and Queens, told FOX Business Friday. “The last thing I want to do is not have these hardworking people not have money for the holidays, but the city left me no choice.”

He said a recent 10 p.m. curfew already has forced him to cut staff - but the shutdown, which begins Monday, could result in laying off between 85 to 90% of staff.

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Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining still are allowed – but with winter approaching the reality is diners may not want to sit outside.

“We can’t operate with outdoor and takeout, and expect to even break even,” Vendome said. “We’ll be in the red tremendously.”

Outdoor dining was already weather dependent, with business plummeting in the rain. Soon, temperatures will drop with the season.

“The forecast next week shows lows of 20, 21, 27 – with snow three days,” Vendome said. “No one is dining outdoors in that condition.”

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The NYC Hospitality Alliance, an industry group, also blasted Cuomo’s move Friday, arguing that indoor restaurant dining has been linked to just a tiny fraction of new cases – compared to other types of gatherings.

According to data released by New York State Contact Tracing, small gatherings drove 74% of all infections, while restaurants and bars were reported to drive 1.4% of infections. The incongruity did not sit well with the hospitality alliance.

"Only New York City's restaurants are being closed even when hospitalization rates upstate are double the city's rate,” the group said in a statement.

The data was collected from 46,000 cases between September and November.

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Without restaurants, more people will hang out in small gatherings at homes, which the data indicates have contributed to the spikes. Vendome said this represents “flawed logic.”

Although the city reopened indoor dining at 25% capacity back on Sept. 30, it helped restaurants, but only a little. Noting that the restaurant business in pre-COVID New York "was hard enough" Vendom said now "imagine slashing three-quarters of seating.”