As more states ‘open up’….
Stores and restaurants work to figure out how to accommodate some sort of social distancing….
Some places won’t open because such restrictions won’t allow enough business to pay the bills and staff…
Some will….
And some people will go out to eat now….
And some are gonna take a while to feel comfortable enough to do so…
This WILL be the new norm for a while….
The waiters wear plastic gloves and masks. The menus might be disposable, or even on customers’ phones. Diners might not be allowed to sit with anyone who doesn’t live in their household. Perhaps there’s a faint whiff of bleach in the air, or dividers between booths. The dining rooms can look mostly empty, with six feet or more between tables and restaurants limited to as little as 25 percent of their capacity.
This is what’s not normal about the dining scene this week in Georgia, Tennessee and Alaska, where restaurants were given the go-ahead to resume serving patrons in-house, weeks after the coronavirus shuttered eateries, from farm-to-table bistros to greasy-spoon diners.
But here’s what is: patrons settling into tables and booths, ordering the “Summertime Setback” cocktail at Hugo’s Oyster Bar in Roswell, Ga., the chiles rellenos at Chapultepec in Tyrone, Ga., or the burgers at Matanuska Brewing Co. in Anchorage. They’re greeting servers they haven’t seen in weeks….