Eating Out

 For the first time in months, Jill and I went out for breakfast this morning, to the local Panera. I would not say it was "busy"--certainly not the way it would have been a year ago at the same time of day--and it was appropriately social-distanced. Half of the tables were marked as unavailable, there were floor markings for distancing at the registers. Everyone wore masks, except when eating or drinking.

I felt perfectly safe being there. I'm not sure in what other restaurants we used to frequent I would feel the same way. The local Applebee's seems to be fairly active when I go there to pick up take-out, but I wonder about dining in in places that serve alcohol...the inhibition-reducing effect is a concern.

Chain Links

 Here's a little something I noticed over the weekend:

I live in an area with a lot of chain restaurants. Easily accessible from my neighborhood there is an Applebee's, a Ruby Tuesday (two, actually), a Bertucci's, an Olive Garden, a Longhorn Steakhouse, and an Outback. A bit further away, there's a Chili's and a TGIFriday.

I started paying attention to something over the past few days--tracking advertising on broadcast and basic cable channels, I noted that of all those places, the only one with a heavy commercial presence is Applebee's. I think I saw one ad for Olive Garden.

Now, before the pandemic, ads for all of them were ubiquitous. And in the early days of the lockdown, all of them were advertising that they were available for takeout and delivery. As far as I know, they all still are. And, in my area, all of them can be open for in-person dining, either outdoors or at 50 percent capacity indoors.

So, with the exception of Applebee's, why aren't they on TV begging people to come back in?

FTR, I'm in the Philly metro TV market. Is it any different where you are?

Future Life

What do the next six months look like? What businesses will re-open and under what conditions? If they do, can they survive with the reduced revenues those conditions will entail?

Museums in many areas, such as Philadelphia and New York, have re-opened or will re-open in the coming weeks. They are all requiring masks and social distancing and restricting attendance to some percentage of capacity (the exact figure depending on rules in their location). I suspect that the capacity restriction will be moot, as few people will wish to visit under those terms.

Movie chains, notably AMC, are announcing re-openings, again based on the regulations in the respective theaters' regions. What, exactly, they will be showing remains a question. Hollywood has not been in production, not even in post-production, for months. There are some major films that were completed and ready for release in the spring, but some of them have already gone direct to streaming and there is the possibility that the studios will prefer not to release others until the possibility of a strong box office is more viable. Some places have announced plans to show "classic" films for the time being (but "classic" seems to mean nothing older than the mid-1980s). Will that draw people back to the cinema?

Live theater--Broadway, local and community--seems to be in the most trouble. The Broadway theaters do not expect to be operating before February...and even then, a lot of theaters will be dark, as the shows they had on the boards have decided not to try to re-open and there are few new ones ready to open so soon. Local theaters rely to a great extent on the national touring companies, all of which are currently shut down and will likely require months to be back in operation. Community theater, with which I am very familiar, has now lost half of last season and probably the beginning of the 2020-21 season as well. In some cases, that could mean losing their venues, as the places they rent from have either moved on or will want higher fees.

Restaurants, already re-opened in some form in most areas, may do better. They have had some revenue thanks to take-out over the past few months. The issue, again, will be whether they can be profitable with reduced seating.

Am I missing anything?

Dining Out, Inside

Jill and I had dinner at Iron Hill Brewery in Media, PA last night and it was a pleasant, unstressful experience. Yes, we wore masks, but took them off once we were seated. The restaurant had rearranged things to 50% capacity, but even then were not filled at 6 PM on a Sunday. The bar area seemed busy, but still not filled to its new limits.

The current menu is somewhat limited--only one kind of steak on offer and only one dessert listed. The waiter told us they planned on increasing the selection once they had a better handle on what kind of business to expect (after all, they've only been open for any kind of sit-down service for about two weeks).

We felt comfortable and safe. We saw them cleaning areas that had been used, so they are maintaining standards. I can heartily recommend Iron Hill to my Delaware County neighbors.

What Do the Simple Folk Do?

As I was thinking this morning about the past three months, contemplating all the things I have tried to do to keep myself occupied and not bored to tears (including starting this blog), I was reminded of a song from Camelot:

What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
The shepherd who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb
When they're beset and besieged
The folk not noblessly obliged
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do we do not?

So many of the things I would do have simply not been available: try out for a play, go see a play, go see a movie, browse a store (especially a bookstore), eat out.

Never mind what the simple folk do....what does anybody do?

Breakfast Out

Pre-pandemic, Jill and I had a Saturday morning routine. We'd get up, Jill would have her first cup of coffee, and then we'd go to the local Panera for a light breakfast. We haven't done that since the last weekend before Pennsylvania went to lockdown.

Today, we returned to Panera. Business was light, but we saw a few of the people we used to see every Saturday, including our favorite staff member. It seemed they were still limiting the available menu (scones were absent, for instance), but there was assurance they would be ramping up as they saw what the demand was going forward.

Basically, every other table was marked as being unusable. They handed you your cups for beverages, with stirrers and caps and straws, but you could self-serve coffee, soda, etc. Masks are required for entry (and all the staff had them on), but obviously you can remove them once you're seated. I didn't see how quickly they moved to disinfect our table when we left. We also didn't hang quite as long as we were used to doing.

All in all, it was a good experience and I think we'll be back every Saturday.