Restaurant Reopenings

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Alpha8472
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Restaurant Reopenings

Post by Alpha8472 »

Georgia is reopening restaurants April 27, and other states are reopening soon too.

In China, and other Asian countries that have reopened they are using plastic partitions between tables as well as closing off tables in between customers.

The employees wear masks, and customers must wear masks unless they are eating or drinking. This could be the future of restaurants.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/slideshow/W ... 201707.php
storewanderer
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 26th, 2020, 10:19 pm Georgia is reopening restaurants April 27, and other states are reopening soon too.

In China, and other Asian countries that have reopened they are using plastic partitions between tables as well as closing off tables in between customers.

The employees wear masks, and customers must wear masks unless they are eating or drinking. This could be the future of restaurants.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/slideshow/W ... 201707.php
I do not think many people will be going to restaurants under the conditions you describe. This will severely reduce the volume restaurants can do. I think people in the US tended to go out to restaurants much more often than those in Asian countries. Rules like this will limit the frequency that people go to restaurants.
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by cjd »

This will not be the long term future of restaurants. I think people are going overboard on saying that everything is going to be this or that way permanently in the future. Things will eventually settle down and get back to normal. But the virus has to no longer be a threat first. Employees handling food may be wearing masks from now on, which would probably be a good thing.

Short term, no I do not think a lot of people will go back to eating at restaurants. Personally, I'd rather wait until there is more normalcy and things feel safer.
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by Super S »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 26th, 2020, 10:19 pm Georgia is reopening restaurants April 27, and other states are reopening soon too.

In China, and other Asian countries that have reopened they are using plastic partitions between tables as well as closing off tables in between customers.

The employees wear masks, and customers must wear masks unless they are eating or drinking. This could be the future of restaurants.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/slideshow/W ... 201707.php
I would like to know exactly how they are going to enforce a mask requirement in a restaurant where people go to eat. You can't eat with a mask on.
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by cjd »

Super S wrote: April 27th, 2020, 5:29 pm
I would like to know exactly how they are going to enforce a mask requirement in a restaurant where people go to eat. You can't eat with a mask on.
Maybe they have to keep the mask on until they get seated and the food comes to the table? Doesn't make any sense to me, and then taking off the mask to eat could mean your hands are then contaminated.

And I understand they would be closed off a lot on capacity, but it would have to be a pretty big place to distance people far enough apart. I don't even know if it would be worth it to even opening dining rooms right now from a business perspective.

Not to mention you have food coming out into a dining room full of people. Even if the kitchen and waitstaff wear masks, are washing hands properly, etc. Do you really want to eat food in an environment where other people who are potentially infected, are talking, coughing, sneezing, etc?
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: April 27th, 2020, 6:09 pm
Super S wrote: April 27th, 2020, 5:29 pm
I would like to know exactly how they are going to enforce a mask requirement in a restaurant where people go to eat. You can't eat with a mask on.
Maybe they have to keep the mask on until they get seated and the food comes to the table? Doesn't make any sense to me, and then taking off the mask to eat could mean your hands are then contaminated.

And I understand they would be closed off a lot on capacity, but it would have to be a pretty big place to distance people far enough apart. I don't even know if it would be worth it to even opening dining rooms right now from a business perspective.

Not to mention you have food coming out into a dining room full of people. Even if the kitchen and waitstaff wear masks, are washing hands properly, etc. Do you really want to eat food in an environment where other people who are potentially infected, are talking, coughing, sneezing, etc?
The restaurant business with the old loud crowded sit down restaurant is doomed by the design of this virus and the distancing/contact concerns. Think of all the different people who handle the components of the restaurant meal. Multiple people prep the food, then someone assembles the food. Then someone delivers it to your table. Someone handled that washed flatware and glassware and likely another person put that washed flatware and glassware on your table.

The thought of people having to wear masks if they are not eating/drinking is not functional and not sanitary. People drink throughout their time in a restaurant and touching the mask to put it off and on in order to sip drinks is a huge germ spreading move. Restaurants make their money by selling people various courses of food from drink, to appetizer, to salad, to entree, to dessert or additional after meal beverage. To have people have to take masks on and off while waiting for the different courses is simply not going to function. Also to have tipped wait staff policing customers telling them to put their mask back on, is going to be a real battle...

Closing off capacity further hurts the business model which is designed to have a high volume of customers in order to be profitable. If they can "make up" for the lost inside customers by adding more take out volume it could somehow balance out (since take out should require less labor than dine in if run correctly, which many restaurants are in the process of learning at this time).
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Re: Restaurant Reopenings

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: April 27th, 2020, 11:12 pm The restaurant business with the old loud crowded sit down restaurant is doomed by the design of this virus and the distancing/contact concerns. Think of all the different people who handle the components of the restaurant meal. Multiple people prep the food, then someone assembles the food. Then someone delivers it to your table. Someone handled that washed flatware and glassware and likely another person put that washed flatware and glassware on your table.

The thought of people having to wear masks if they are not eating/drinking is not functional and not sanitary. People drink throughout their time in a restaurant and touching the mask to put it off and on in order to sip drinks is a huge germ spreading move. Restaurants make their money by selling people various courses of food from drink, to appetizer, to salad, to entree, to dessert or additional after meal beverage. To have people have to take masks on and off while waiting for the different courses is simply not going to function. Also to have tipped wait staff policing customers telling them to put their mask back on, is going to be a real battle...

Closing off capacity further hurts the business model which is designed to have a high volume of customers in order to be profitable. If they can "make up" for the lost inside customers by adding more take out volume it could somehow balance out (since take out should require less labor than dine in if run correctly, which many restaurants are in the process of learning at this time).
Though you aren't adding that much, in terms of people handling it by eating in rather than take out (which they have already been doing).
Maybe the person serving it (though some places may have that now, with someone in the back packing it and someone out front taking payment and handing it to you taking the place of a waiter/waitress). The dishes would be an addition, though they could have whoever takes it from the dishwasher wrap each setting in a napkin, so it isn't handled as much, and have the wait staff bring out the glassware when you are seated (which some places do both of already anyway).

More likely with mask use would be have it on when you enter, and put it back on if you have to leave your table (to use the restroom for example) then when you leave - those places where you'd be more likely to be in contact with people. Once at the table it's not as much of an issue - you could also have the wait staff use one of the plastic shields for their protection if they are concerned along with a mask.

Some of the seating may also depend on how a restaurant is configured - for example, a location with a row of booths back to back isn't likely such an issue, as you may have someone sitting closer BUT they will be breathing the opposite direction, only towards whoever they may be sitting with, and not other tables.
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