Attorneys representing more than 80 Western New York restaurants and bars and the state made their arguments before a judge Friday. The petitioners are asking for permission to reopen indoor dining in orange microcluster zones again. 

They were hoping state Supreme Court Justice Henry Nowak would issue a preliminary injunction allowing that immediately. However, Judge Nowak says he hopes to make a decision on the injunction by Wednesday. 

The restaurants’ primary argument is that there is no evidence there is significant COVID-19 spread in their establishments and the state’s contact tracing data bears that out. 

"If the restaurants are closed and they're not operating and there's an increase in the positivity rate, it can't be them that's doing it,” Corey Hogan, who is representing the restaurants, said.

"It's been a very difficult challenge for us," said Paul Santora, the owner of Santora's Pizza Pub and Grill restaurants.

"We had to unfortunately lay off close to 100 people,” K.C. Mullett, the owner of Neat Restaurant, said.

The state counters that in order to eat and drink, customers must remove their masks which makes this petition different than ones brought by other industries like gyms and salons. Prior to court, some restaurant owners and workers rallied outside court. They say not having indoor dining is causing them serious financial issues.

"Eating and drinking can't be done with a mask which is one of the most uncontroversial methods for preventing the spread of COVID-19. The state doesn't have to wait until an activity that they know is high risk and dangerous to hurt somebody to start regulating it,” the lawyer representing the state said.

"The Bills being in the playoffs at home for the first time in such a long period of time. I don't know how you're going to stop Buffalonians from gathering in their homes and having huge celebrations. There is no way to control that, the government made that perfectly clear instead of us we have an 11,000 square foot building, we have great ventilation, we have tons of space to put people in and control that environment,” said Santora.

Restaurant owners who tuned in to the court proceedings tell Spectrum News they're confident their voices were heard.

"It's all in the data and I think our lawyers did a great job of emphasizing just the irregularities in the state's data on how they pick and choose on what they go by," said Mullett.

"I think all we're trying to do is get the truth out. I think the truth wins the game for us," Hogan said.