Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

storewanderer
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Fast foods are really dragging their feet to reopen. I think they are finding they can save a ton of money being drive through only and they will milk this as long as they can.

In Reno, there is one El Pollo Loco franchisee (two locations) that is consistently open for dine in (every other table is closed, checkerboard fashion). There are usually very few customers at one of their locations, it is spotlessly clean, and I am 100% comfortable dining in there but ask for the order to go then eat out of the bag at the table as I do not want to interact with a tray. I'm not sure they are giving trays. Public restroom is open and drinks are still self serve. Salsa bar is closed. The other franchisee (three locations) has reopened inside as well but limited hours and took a lot longer to do it.

Also the In N Outs have reopened inside, have not gone in so not sure how they are handling anything. They look pretty busy. Also at least one Popeyes has reopened inside, chairs are on top of every other table inside, this is a recent development as of last week, did not go inside either.

One Wendys in a neighborhood with high homeless population has reopened inside but for take out only and very strict on mask policy inside. Restrooms are closed but the self serve bar for napkins, salt, plastic utensils (all individually wrapped) etc. is there. Ketchup is in packets. This location still has employee serve drinks so nothing to change there. Other locations are still drive through only.

As for McDonalds some seem to be open sometimes on a limited basis for take out, but I don't see any doing dine in. Jack in the Box re-opened for dine-in then re-closed again. Have not been inside either of these places.

Some Burger Kings have banners saying they are open for take out and dine in but I have yet to see anyone sitting inside when I drive by. Have not been inside any of these.

Chickfila is sort of drive through only, but they will take a to go order on their sidewalk patio with a handheld device and will only accept card via the sidewalk patio (no cash).
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by Brian Lutz »

Based on my observations here:

- The vast majority of McDonald's restaurants are either operating drive thru only or if the lobby is open they're only doing takeout. I've seen a couple scattered locations with limited dine-in seating available, but those are few and far between.

- I know of one Taco Bell locally with dine in seating available. Aside from that, most are drive thru only. There are a couple with the lobby open for takeout, but they seem to require using the kiosk to order, and inside orders seem to be given much lower priority than drive thru orders. No self-serve items are available.

- Most Wendy's around here have indoor seating available, but with limited hours (for example, several that are presumably owned by the same franchisee have dine-in seating available from 11am to 2pm, the rest of the time they are drive thru only.) The rest are operating drive thru only or takeout only. The Coke Freestyle machines are available, but there are no self-serve items.

-All of the Arby's locations I know of here are currently operating drive thru only. I did see one in Ellensburg which had inside seating available, but this is a location that primarily serves freeway traffic, so people are less likely to eat in their car.

- The one Subway I've been to recently had indoor seating available, but I'm guessing they vary on a store-by-store basis.

- The local Burger King here says their dining room is open, but I've not been there recently to see what it looks like.

- The Denny's and IHOP locations I've been in are open for dine-in, with limited capacity (although even before this I'd rarely see either of them be all that busy.)

- I believe the Popeye's locations here will take orders inside but don't have any seating. Previously, they had the lobby open only for delivery driver pickup. Don't know what KFC is doing but I'm guessing they are similar to Taco Bell (mostly drive thru, some locations doing take out inside but with no seating.)

- Haven't been to a Jack in the Box in years, so I don't know what they're doing.

- Chick-fil-A locations here are operating drive thru only.
storewanderer
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Brian Lutz wrote: October 7th, 2020, 9:11 am Don't know what KFC is doing but I'm guessing they are similar to Taco Bell (mostly drive thru, some locations doing take out inside but with no seating.)

KFC in my immediate area which is all the same franchisee with about a dozen locations (Reno and some into CA a bit like Auburn or Placerville) has been open inside for to-go this entire time and has had large signs posted to that effect.

KFC down in Sacramento (Harlam Corp. franchisee) has similar looking signs in the windows that say drive through only.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by Super S »

Drove by my local Applebee's tonight, which has a temporary tent set up with outside seating. It looks like they are giving up on this in my area....this is the second time in the last week I have seen the lights for the tent shut off at 7:30 PM and it looks like some temporary fencing was blown around by the wind. We have had heavy rain in my area over the past few days and people are not interested in eating inside a tent after dark in a downpour when they can go inside the restaurant which is much more pleasant.

Washington is not an ideal place to eat outdoors during the fall/winter months.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

I ate at a restaurant with outdoor dining in downtown Oakland, California last night. The streets had one lane of the 4 lane road converted to outdoor dining. They had a covered wooden structure and it was quite nice.

I thought that Oakland would be dangerous and scary, but it was quite safe and pleasant. There were lots of people outside. The neighborhood is quite gentrified right now with many luxury apartments and condos.

The waiter did comment that work hours were being cut and they have fewer customers than before COVID-19.

I do not know what will happen if it starts raining again. We have not had any significant rain in months and the temperatures are quite warm right now at 86 during the day and 60s in the evening.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by klkla »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 14th, 2020, 5:03 pmI do not know what will happen if it starts raining again. We have not had any significant rain in months and the temperatures are quite warm right now at 86 during the day and 60s in the evening.
It's not really a mystery. When it rains (or snows in other parts of the country) nobody will want to go out to dinner They will just eat at home or get take out/delivery.

Luckily outside temperature isn't as big of a deal. I experienced some very good misting systems in Palm Springs last month. And restaurants have had portable outdoor heating systems for years.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: October 14th, 2020, 5:11 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: October 14th, 2020, 5:03 pmI do not know what will happen if it starts raining again. We have not had any significant rain in months and the temperatures are quite warm right now at 86 during the day and 60s in the evening.
It's not really a mystery. When it rains (or snows in other parts of the country) nobody will want to go out to dinner They will just eat at home or get take out/delivery.

Luckily outside temperature isn't as big of a deal. I experienced some very good misting systems in Palm Springs last month. And restaurants have had portable outdoor heating systems for years.
Generally speaking I think a lot of people are still doing indoor dining in other parts of the country when it is allowed, which it is in many other states without much in the way of restrictions. These fall months are some of the nicest months of the year in California and adding to it the COVID issues why not eat outside - there is no downside at all to doing so. But in a lot of other parts of the country with humid summers and other weather issues it is not so desirable to do outdoor dining even in the warmer months.

Since the heavy smoke from fires lately a lot of people I talked to who were doing outdoor dining have switched back to indoor dining again. I have a lot of family members and coworkers who regularly visit restaurants and dine inside, they are completely comfortable with doing so. I won't be tagging along. A nearly empty El Pollo Loco or an empty large format Habit are as far as I'm willing to go as far as indoor dining goes.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

San Francisco has such low rates of coronavirus that the city is about to move to indoor dining at 50 percent capacity. This is better than anywhere else in the state. The rate of transmission in San Francisco is so low. What could be causing this? I would suspect that it is due to the enormous amount of masking wearing. People in San Francisco seem to be the most receptive to mask wearing. It is probably 99 to 100 percent almost everywhere you go.

Other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area are not as compliant. The distant suburbs was where I saw some really obnoxious anti-mask people who would brazenly shop without masks and then come right next to you invading your personal space. It was like they were trying to be rude just to get a reaction out of you.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by arizonaguy »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 21st, 2020, 12:17 am San Francisco has such low rates of coronavirus that the city is about to move to indoor dining at 50 percent capacity. This is better than anywhere else in the state. The rate of transmission in San Francisco is so low. What could be causing this? I would suspect that it is due to the enormous amount of masking wearing. People in San Francisco seem to be the most receptive to mask wearing. It is probably 99 to 100 percent almost everywhere you go.

Other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area are not as compliant. The distant suburbs was where I saw some really obnoxious anti-mask people who would brazenly shop without masks and then come right next to you invading your personal space. It was like they were trying to be rude just to get a reaction out of you.
I'd also argue that in San Francisco the vast majority of jobs can be done in a WFH capacity, therefore people really don't need to be out and about unless they need to be.

I was in the Bay Area a week and a half ago and I really enjoyed the setup with outdoor dining. One restaurant (which was probably more of a bar pre-covid) had a list of "rules" that were read before we could sit down (such as you MUST put on your mask when a server arrives or to speak with your server and you MUST have at least one order of food per table).

One thing I did notice about the Bay Area is essentially everyone wore masks casually walking down the street there. Here in Phoenix (and when I was in Kansas City earlier this summer) people generally take (took) off their masks as soon as they left indoor areas.
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Re: Lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 21st, 2020, 12:17 am San Francisco has such low rates of coronavirus that the city is about to move to indoor dining at 50 percent capacity. This is better than anywhere else in the state. The rate of transmission in San Francisco is so low. What could be causing this? I would suspect that it is due to the enormous amount of masking wearing. People in San Francisco seem to be the most receptive to mask wearing. It is probably 99 to 100 percent almost everywhere you go.

Other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area are not as compliant. The distant suburbs was where I saw some really obnoxious anti-mask people who would brazenly shop without masks and then come right next to you invading your personal space. It was like they were trying to be rude just to get a reaction out of you.
It is very compliant regarding masks in my area around Reno since Nevada OSHA has been aggressively going around fining businesses for not enforcing mask requirements.

But restaurants I have heard mixed stories from people on how the mask thing is going there. The few people I know who have gotten sick, there is one common trend, all of them have been frequenting restaurants. It may or may not be connected.
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