Returning To Eating In Restaurants?

We had to go to Walmart last week for something that Bobby needed (can’t remember what it was, but it had to come from Walmart). We could hardly find a place to park in the parking lot, and the store was totally packed.
Normally, we try to avoid places like Walmart and Sam’s Club the whole month of December and January ; but sometimes we still have to go for some reason.

Getting to Walmart, we always pass about 3 regular restaurants (IHOP, Cracker Barrel, and City Diner), and they are always packed when we go past there, so no one is missing out on having meals in the restaurants around here in Alabama. We went to IHOP last month for our anniversary lunch, and they have business as usual, just disposable menus and condiments.
Alabama is a conservative state, so most people around here are not traumatized with the covid fear-mongering all of the time, and we just go on and live our live normally.

 

I thought I was through with dining out for a while, but the snow we got made me a little stir crazy.
There's nothing like not being able to get out to make you want to get out real bad, huh?

So I drove to Applebee's in the big city of Charlottesville tonight and had ribs, slaw and onion rings. It was pretty good. Ribs are tough to make well at home, and they're really not that much cheaper than just going out and buying them already prepared. I got a full rack so I could have leftovers.

Interestingly, they had their "Applebee's Is Now Hiring" banner hanging out front. I didn't ask what was driving it (increased sales, or generic turnover.) There were only 3 tables seated when I was there around 8PM.

I do wish my local Chinese restaurant would open back up for Dine-In service. Right now it's carryout only.

But I'm full, I'm happy, I got out of the house, and I didn't have to do dishes.

 

Same here. I don't eat Chinese food often enough to sustain a business but I really like it every now and then, like once a month. The only Chinese restaurant in Millinocket is open for takeout only and I'm not interested in that. There is also the problem that I far prefer the buffet at Chinese restaurants and I don't know if we'll ever get them back. There's a Chinese food place in Lincoln, about twenty or twenty-five miles from here that we go to once in a while, but they no longer have their buffet. I don't know enough about Chinese food to know what to order. I would know what I'd like when I see it in a buffet but there are only a couple of safe foods that I order when I have to order from a menu.

 

I have a friend who thinks that some number of restaurants are gonna figure out that they can do a decent business on carryout only, and will long-term get rid of Dine-In and all the attendant headaches and overhead. I've wondered that about this Chinese Restaurant (because they do a brisk carryout), excepting that the daily buffet had to be a real revenue generator for them. It's the only time I've seen more than a handful of people in there, and all they gotta do is keep the trough full.

Regarding the fate of buffets: I, too, wonder if we'll ever share a slop line with the unwashed masses. It's not as though they were hyper-hygienic in the first place, and we all survived...despite the repeated bad press.

 

Our Golden Corral has completely closed down, no idea if it will ever open up again. However, the Chinese buffets are open, and letting people go through the line for food.
The one that we occasionally go to has started hanging out little plastic gloves that you have to wear to go through the line, along with your required mask; but then you can dispense with that once you have your food.
The Mexican restaurant has also closed down, and it was not even a buffet. We do not know if it was a management issue, or just lack of people due to the lockdown.
Bobby and I have been wondering if most restaurants will be takeout only, in the future. Since we are in a Republican state, we do not have to deal with the severe lockdowns that some of the blue states have to go through, and places like Cracker Barrel are still full all of the time.
I do think that this is a good time to have one of those food delivery jobs, and if we had a decent little car, I would like to be doing that.

 

I've wondered the same thing. My opinion is that it's like everything else in business...it depends on what the competition is doing.

Right now everyone is doing pretty well with carryout only. But that's because it's the only available option, except for some smattering of restaurants where you have to comply with mask rules...and some number of folks are gonna avoid even that perceived risk and stick with carryout right now.

If things get back to "normal" (and people really believe that things are safe) and all the restaurants around you offer both dine-in and carryout, I gotta think the carryout-only guys are gonna have a tough time of it.

 

Yes.

 

Takeout doesn't seem to be working well for Millinocket restaurants. One of them even tried delivering food, but they ended up closing and they were doing well before the Dr. Fauci Virus. People who I talk to drive to Lincoln, Bangor, or further north where they can sit down and eat in a restaurant.

 

This intentional destruction infuriates me. I fear this is only the beginning.

 

If people weren't so darned gullible and scared, they wouldn't have been able to pull it off.

One restaurant owner in Maine remained open after the governor demanded the closure of restaurants. They pulled his licenses, and he stayed open. Once his lawyers got involved, his licenses were returned. Later, when restaurants were allowed to reopen with limited capacity and masks, they pulled his licenses again for not mandating masks. Once again, they were returned. But fighting this nonsense for the average business owner is an expensive endeavor.

 

It couldn't be done. They only allow one side to be given. However, there are other threads that would be more on-topic, since this one is about returning to eating in restaurants.