But even doing takeout in the pandemic has been a challenge. Link says he had to close it down and reconfigure when people started congregating in the restaurant.
"I assume we'll be all wearing gloves and masks, which is a bummer," Link says."There won't be a lot of hugging and handshaking and back-slapping and all that." Link says customers and staff will have to adapt to prevent a resurgence of the virus, which he says could cost lives and destroy the restaurant industry.
"I was happy when they called us back to at least come start getting the place cleaned up and stuff," McQueen says."Then when we found out we were opening, it was great."
Hooray restaurants! Hooray reopening! I wish there was a way for them to never, ever again serve creepy NPR fake journalists. Let them eat drive-thru.
One thing I would recommend restaurant operators to consider is what I saw a lot of in Middle East - small private rooms. Not all were like this but many were. Not much larger than booths but completely walled off from servers/staff and other diners...
Small footprint restaurants won't be able to make it with the restrictions being mentioned. If you could seat 20, now 10 it won't be sustainable.
Restaurants operate on razor-thin average margins of 5%. Even a 10% reduction in traffic can ruin these businesses. With a completely inept and corrupt administration in charge, expect to see many of your favorite businesses close permanently within the next 90-180 days.