A couple of weeks ago, my wife's sister paid us a visit, even though we didn't want her to. Even though we told her "no" for visiting us, while she was visiting her granddaughter in Kansas, she drove over here anyway and called us from a hotel. The lady plain and simply doesn't like hearing the word "no" from anyone. Anyway, we drove over to the hotel, talked to her for a few minutes, masks on, in the parking. Before we left, she wanted us to meet her at iHop for breakfast the next morning. At first I was totally against it, then decided "what the heck". We hadn't ate inside a restaurant since last February. Wore masks in and very few people eating. Took masks off for coffee and eating. It seemed really nice to eat inside a restaurant again, but that night I had diarrhea pretty bad. Was it from eating inside a restaurant or what........don't know. But, have decided not to eat inside until things get better around here with the virus and that definitely has happened. Last Friday, our Governor extended our mask order for another 30 days. Seems as if the virus thing has gotten worse here instead of better. Also found out the rodeo, that we wanted to attend here (possibly) isn't going to have any spectators. No family members are allowed to come either. Once an event is done, all of the contestants of that event have to leave.
I have a sister like that. It wasn't the food that gave you diarrhea, it was an overdose of narcissism. This thing has put me off to the whole experience of eating out. It's not comfortable. It's not relaxing. I think the quality has declined because the volume has gone down so much...kitchen processes are designed for a specific throughput. Regarding extended mask mandates...if you're curious, you can check out your state and county COVID stats here.
We went to IHOP last Sunday. We have not been there since early last spring , before the shutdown. Now , they have a special of their Classic Hamburger for $5 after 2 PM. However, when we got there, Bobby said that he felt like breakfast instead, and so we both had breakfast instead of hamburgers. They overall are doing a great job. Everything is pretty much disposable (salt/pepper packets, paper menus, etc), but other than that, the food and service was the same as when we used to go there before the shutdown happened. Neither of us are concerned about getting sick, so we didn’t worry about being in a restaurant, and will probably do it more often now that things are opening up. We are still hoping that the fitness center will be able to open the sauna/steam room, and the jacuzzi . It is just too cold, and winter coming on, for us to be going to the gym and not being able to get warm. An hour in cold water is okay, as long as I can warm up again afterwards.
When I travel south of Millinocket, I don't at all enjoy eating in restaurants because the menus are too abbreviated and the atmosphere is horrid, with the distancing and the masks. When I go north of Millinocket, things are pretty much normal except that the waitresses are wearing masks. Since Millinocket's restaurants were mostly small, none of them have bothered to reopen since the full lockdown. Probably, there's no profit in it if they can serve only half of the customers they used to serve. I expect some of them will never reopen. We have a restaurant that will provide curbside service for take-out stuff but if I am going to eat at home, I may as well cook my own meals.
Well, sooner or later, there are going to be more and more folks going back to eating inside. We sure miss that! We've already missed my Birthday Dinner last June. I really look forward to a nice Prime Rib dinner and my wife looks forward to having Lobster on my birthday. Unfortunately, the virus numbers have gone up here, so..........no eating inside for us yet. Every year we also look forward to Golden Corral's Veterans Day dinner (free to me), but, that won't happen this year. May order a take-out though.
@Cody Fousnaugh "Golden Corral said it has closed all 35 company-operated restaurants and furloughed 2,290 employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The franchisor said that “some” of the buffet chain's 454 franchised stores remain in operation, offering takeout and delivery.Mar 25, 2020" When I traveled from Phoenix working for Sears to New Mexico, my co-worker Sanchez often took me to the Golden Corral in Farmington. Nice place, good food. Long ago. Frank
I liked Golden Corral. I would eat there with my brother and his family every once in a while (this is in northern Virginia.) There's a regional chain around here called Country Cookin' that has also shut down. They were this hybrid where you ordered your main course (meat and potato) from a waitress, but self-served unlimited salad, soup and sides at the buffet. It was a pretty good deal to go there, order an entree, tell the server to just put it in a To Go box, and make an eat-in meal out of the salad, soup, rolls & desserts that were included in the price of the entree.
I think a lot of people feel that way. Plus, many folks don't want to sit down for an extended period of time in a room with strangers where everyone has their mask off. To the extent there's risk, such an environment would be risk of the highest order.
I ate out last night for maybe the 4th time since the insanity started. I won't be going eating out again until this is over and done with. It's not comfortable. It's not relaxing. It's not worth it.
We ate at Governors in Bangor a few days ago. Bangor is crazy but it's not nearly as crazy as Augusta, and it gets worse the further south you go. On their way out a couple who were sitting near us (6 feet) stopped to talk about something they had overheard us say, I forget what it was now, but they were standing next to our table, without masks, and we were seated at our table, without masks, and the wait staff didn't know what to do because they were in their nineties, which was one of the things they said early on. Someone would have called a SWAT team if that were Portland. One thing I've noticed, in Bangor at least, is that, while most everyone will put up with the silly rule about wearing a mask as you walk to your table, almost no one puts it back on when they leave. What are they going to do? Kick you out? You're already leaving. When we ate in South Portland a month or so ago, they wanted us to put our masks on between bites or whenever anyone approached our table. If not for the fact that we were staying in a hotel, I'd have walked out upon hearing the stupid rule, rather than simply ignoring it.
We won't eat inside a restaurant until we get the vaccine AND and the number of people getting the virus goes down...........and considerably down. For us, we really, really miss eating in a restaurant. Going out to breakfast and sometimes dinner on the weekend. I would love to order a nice Salad Bar along with a nice Prime Rib Steak dinner with a cold glass of Bud Light. My wife will have a nice Maine Lobster dinner.
Well, I am not going to give up on living for fear of my life, particularly when the threat is so distant.
Not a restaurant, but my friend was in Macy's in the Atlanta metro area today... She was practically alone in the store, ONE WEEK before Christmas. Brick and mortar businesses are really going to have a tough year, including most restaurants.