MIDDLEBURY — It’s been a long year for restaurant owners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down restaurants in Vermont in the middle of March 2020, they’ve either been on lockdown or limited to partial capacity, which in Vermont was kept at 25% of indoor seating capacity starting last summer, and has remained at that level for much of the past year with all aspects of universal guidance measures in effect. To survive with those restrictions, restaurants turned to outdoor seating, locally-sponsored gift cert … (read more)