#[ed you are perhaps the strangest person hes met and he has no idea what to do here]

[toodamnloyal]

The deck of the doomed little packet ship emptied quickly of sailors and pirates once the two ships were untangled from each other. It was a shock to realize that he was perhaps the last person still standing aboard her, watching the retreating back of the pirate captain as he clambered aboard Revenge, again like this whole thing had been simply a day in the park. Like there was nothing unusual about chasing the small vessel into a raging storm, splintering it by having bore down on the deck with the frigate, nothing unusual at all about standing on the deck until the last moment and sauntering away. Theodore watched as the man recovered from the slip and swung himself up over the rail and only then did the spell holding him in place break, he looked around and realized that the deck was indeed empty and he still held in place by the rope he’d been using to keep from being swept over by the waves that now towered far overhead.

Quickly the young officer started trying to untie himself, the rope had only been wrapped about his wrists but now it was tight. Theodore tried unwrapping it, then as time weighed on him, as the deck became more swamped and he feared being drug under or left behind, his motions became more frantic. “Let go.” He bit out through grit teeth, then again more pleadingly as he looked about for his lost saber and jerked his arm. It finally did release and he breathed easier. He was alone… he sighed … he could run now… he backed away from the railing, changing shapes in a ripple of feathers and half opening his wings… he could perhaps make his way out of the storm… they couldn’t be too far from land… the Caribbean was full of islands… or if not land then perhaps another ship, nobody would mind a crow sheltering out of the weather for a while. Surely.

Even knowing it was horrible idea but still feeling the need to at least try Theodore tried to fly away. No sooner did he launch from the deck than that terrible driving wind almost wrenched his wings from their very sockets. His feathers were ripped out, wings feeling like they’d snap and there was no hope of making an escape from the pirates or the storm. He barely managed to direct his path toward the bulk of Revenge and crashed into the side of the ship and immediately changed back to his human form just in time to grab hold of the netting on the hull in order to clamber aboard. His arms ached… His whole body ached from the short flight of mere seconds and Theodore hoped nobody had seen, or at least not noticed his stupid stunt. He was breathing hard by the time he heaved himself up over the railing and fell flat onto the deck, managed to lift shaking arms to push hair and water – and a few loose feathers, out of his face. ‘Wonder if I have any of those left or if I’m bald now.’

He sighed and managed to sit up, shivering now from pain as well as exhaustion and the soaking wet cold. Where had the Captain gone? Theodore shaded his eyes from the wind and rain to look for the man, again hoping that his little attempt to flee hadn’t been noticed, or that anyone who did see wouldn’t connect a wind-blown bird to their prisoner. He stood up, braced himself against the railing and suppose he should wait until someone told him what to do…did this ship have a jail? Was he supposed to presume he was wanted in the great cabin? Theodore stood on the mostly-empty deck and waited.

The Success was sinking, and The Queen Anne's Revenge was at risk of going under with her. Edward's crew, at the very least, seemed to be taking the danger seriously. The rushed to work at disentangling the ships, some of them hurrying to get back aboard the more sea worthy of the two.

One man did press a bottle of wine taken from the stores of The Success into Edward's hand. Edward looked it over, reaching a hand out to steady himself as the ship rocked beneath him. He was the only one who seemed oblivious to the danger around them -- and whether that was because he really didn't understand the very real threat of drowning that was quickly approaching or he just didn't care was unclear.

Tad did not respond to any of Theo's calls for him. The man would, very unfortunately, never know retirement.

Edward finally looked up from the bottle of wine, having let Theo talk the entire time he was reading the label.

"Hm? Yeah... I'm Blackbeard. Right. Not terrible interested in taking a swim for a sword, unless it's valuable. Standard issue?" he tossed the bottle over his shoulder and started to make the ascent himself, climbing ropes and splintered wood with the same nonchalant attitude that he had on the deck. He could deal with the Lieutenant later. It was assuring to know that there weren't any other officers aboard the ship. This wouldn't become a problem later, beyond the obvious repairs that would be necessary for The Queen.

The rain slicked everything beneath Edward's hands and he momentarily slipped, catching himself with a sharp laugh.

[aarons-main-blog]

I changed my mind, and decided to que this up immediately after posting the first one. I won't be home when you see this because I'm attending a funeral, but tell me what you think of it and I will see you when I get home!

Note: this was made on Google docs mobile, so when I get a chance I will actually use tab instead of just paragraphs.

"Wars, you said you knew the area!"

"I thought I did, but this is sure as hell not the same way I remember! Those ruins we passed back there? Those are completely new to me! This forest? I don't even recognize half of these plants! We should have reached a town hours ago!"

"Hey, stop fighting, you two, or-"

The group Link had been following for the last few hours came to a halt as the one with pink-tipped hair argued with the one with a blue scarf. He couldn't tell if they were a threat yet, they just seemed like lost travelers. Then again, that was the main way the Yiga clan tried to trick him. 

Pinky and Wars kept arguing, until finally the smallest one in rainbow colors seemed to snap. "How about we admit it. We are lost, and just happened to find something that reminded Wars of home. It was NOONE's fault, because we ignored the obvious signs something was wrong. Now, we are lost in the middle of a forest, and unless you have an idea of what we should do, then SHUT UP!"

The group all seemed shocked by his outburst, Link and the rainbow included, and once they all seemed to get over it, the kid apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

The oldest one, probably the leader, said, "No, it's ok. Today has been a long day, and everyone seems on edge. Perhaps we should set up camp early, does that sound good to everyone?"

The group nodded collectively, and started to set up in the clearing that could barely fit all of them. The one in a green tunic and no pants volunteered for the night's first watch, and while it wouldn't be for a while, they seemed relaxed a bit more by the fact someone was willing to do it. 

Link, who had been hiding a good distance away from them, stood up. He got a stealth potion that would last him a few hours at least ready, then decided he would investigate that night.

As the sun set, an awful smell enveloped the forest. "Legend, what did you do?!"

"I don't know! It was fine a minute ago!"

"It's smoking! How did you burn SOUP of all things?!"

"I didn't burn it, it just got too hot!"

"Because you ****ed up, Legend! That's literally how things burn up!"

"Wind, watch your mouth."

Link had just come back from following the path the group of strangers had taken, looking to see if they dropped anything interesting, when he heard the commotion. It smelled like burning hair or that one shrine he had found with the awful cook. Maybe they were cousins? 

As Link got closer to get a better look, he saw four people standing around a large cooking pot with a brown/green liquid with chunks in it. Pathetic. Are all of them as bad cooks as that one? Link was amazed they had survived however long they had been traveling. 

Pinkey poked the 'soup' with a wooden ladle. "It's still edible, look, the vegetables seem cooked enough."

 "With all due respect, I don't know if I would want to eat that," the kid in a blue shirt said with a grimace. "I don't know if anyone else would either."

The old one took the ladle and used it to try a small sip of what they were calling a soup, and his face scrunched up immediately. 

"Uh, Time?" The blue kid tapped the man's shoulder. 

The man swallowed the drink, coughed, then said, "It is… certainly better than last time."

A few of the others gave their opinions, from encouraging to neutral, before deciding it was better than nothing. 

None of them looked that happy about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After what theoretically could have been called dinner, the one in the green tunic, which Link had identified as being named "Hyrule," started circling around the camp, gradually making them larger and larger before returning close and starting again. Near the middle of the third round, Link drank his stealth potion and snuck into the campsite. 

There was a young adult in tan with a tall belt, there was a boy in blue(wind), there was a kid in rainbow, there was a young adult with a wolf pelt on his shoulders, still on in his sleep for some reason, there was one in red with pink hair tips(legend), and then there was the leader. Link got a good look at him. He had a fancy set of armour, a big sword, a bad eye, but the strangest thing was he had familiar markings covering his face. They were almost the same… 

As the ones Link saw in nearly every mirror, looking right back at himself. 

"Time?"

Link turned towards the voice to see the one called Hyrule looking at him. He had to play this right. "Yes?"

"Oh, thank the goddess. What are you up to?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I was going to see if you wanted off early." This was dangerous. If he realized the real Time was sleeping soundly next to him, he would wake up all the others, and then he'd have eight grumpy travelers armed to the teeth on his trail in seconds. 

"You sure that's ok with you?"

"Yes, get some rest."

"Thanks, Time," the boy said with a smile. "I will."

Link somewhat directed Hyrule towards the opposite side of where Time was. He was extremely lucky the fire was ruining the boy's night vision. 

"Time?"

Link stopped and turned his head a bit. "Yeah?"

There was a pause. "Thank you for being here for us."

Link smiled. "You don't have to mention it," mimicking the somewhat fancy way he had heard Time use words. "Goodnight."

Hyrule mumbled it back, seemingly exhausted from the travel. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Hyrule woke up feeling well rested. The birds were singing a song only they knew, the trees provided shade from the early morning sun, the wind rustled leaves and bushes softly, and a nice smell emanated from the cooking pot. 

Wait, did someone cook something edible? Hyrule shot up, feeling excited to see what had made someone unlock their inner cook. 

"Hey, mornin, Hyrule!" 

"Goodmorning, Wind! What's cooking?"

Wind was grinning like an idiot. "No idea, but none of us made it, that's for sure! Four woke up and saw it cooking, then woke up the rest of us, except for you and sky. Time says you didn't wake him up for his shift, so we thought you could use some re-"

Hyrule was confused. "Wait, what? Run that by me one more time." 

Wind's grin fell just a little bit, before coming back up. "Four woke up first, saw something was cooking, and woke everyone but you and sky because we thought you must have kept watch the whole night. Is that not what happened?"

"Yeah, Time said he couldn't sleep last night, so he took over the watch early for me."

Time, who had been listening in, said "I think I would know my sleep schedule better than you would. You didn't wake me up last night, and I didn't wake myself up, that's for certain."

"Then who-"

Four hit the pot a few times. "Breakfast is ready, guys!"

The questions could wait. Nobody had had a good meal for at least a week or two, so they were excited to try the mysterious meal.

It. Was. Delicious!

After discussion, it was determined to be a mushroom, meat and rice based meal. The meat used was probably venison, and a high quality type at that. It was served with some mushrooms nobody recognized but everybody loved, and a strange rice they couldn't find an exact comparison of.

Idle conversation was of generally positive things and how beautiful the world was. All of their problems seemed far away, and the day promised to be a great one. As the last of the food was eaten up, and the bowl was starting to be wiped as clean as it would get, Twilight brought up the question on everyone's mind. 

"I wonder who made this for us."

"Maybe it was a ghost!" Wind exclaimed.

"Maybe it was a passing traveler?" Four said at the same time.

Legend laughed. "It was not a ghost, you idiot!"

"You don't know that," Wind huffed. "I met a ghost once, she was nice!"

"You did NOT meet a ghost!"

"Yeah I did!"

"Cut it out you two," Time said with his signature 'stop' look. "Whoever did it, they must have been a nice person. Don't argue about things this good, ok?"

"Ok!" Wind said. Legend just scoffed. 

Nobody noticed the person sitting on top of a tree, fiddling a strange ocarina.

I hope this was ok! I will be the first to admit my writing style isn't the best, but I think this is one of my better works at the moment. Comments and criticism is appreciated, and I may edit this if I find stupid things I want to change/fix. I should be home Friday, probably Thursday afternoon. Anyway, see you next time!

[tuffdwightwest]

Tuffnut Drabble

//Tufflout at the end.

Astrid was handing out food for the gathered riders. Grinning as she 'accidentally', spilled some on Snotlout. Causing him, of course, to complain as he took the bowl with a grumble. Most of the group was there, sans the twins, however that thought seemed to be short lived as she heard footsteps. Looking over she spotted Tuffnut carrying Chicken as well as what appeared to be a sleeping bag? 

She wasn't the only one who noticed him approach and the others just watched as he started to set up a little area for himself. "What are you eating?" He asked. 

"Chicken noodle soup," Fishlegs responded, taking a sip before cringing as he heard the Chickens indignant cry. Tuffnut quickly comforted it though as he crawled into the little 'bed' he made. It looked more like a weird nest in Astrid's opinion though. 

"Oh, dang, I was hungry." He admitted. Astrid felt bad as she remembered his little declaration not to eat any more chicken. A statement he did in honour of 'her' becoming a part of his life. Astrid thought it was stupid and dramatic at the time but he seemed to be following through with it. 

"Sorry, Tuff. I didn't think you were joining us tonight. I thought you and your sister were out shopping." She explained which caused him to brighten. 

"Oh! We were, my sister is the best at shopping. Look, I got some new helmet shine, some more furs and even this new blanket." He explained patting the blanket that he was sitting on with a pleased smile. 

"Where is Ruffnut now?" Hiccup asked curiously taking a sip of his soup. 

"Most likely fucking Gnupa Hottsson from the Bearknuckle tribe." Tuffnut shrugged causing more then a few to spit out their soups in surprise. It was Snotlout that broke the silence first.

"Wait what did you say, your sister is...?"

"Fucking Gnupa Hottsson from the Bearknuckle tribe?" Tuffnut said, surprised by the others reactions. They always seemed to react so vividly to the strangest of things. 

"Um, what since when?" Astrid added in.

"Well, I don't know, my sister ran into him when we were out shopping. He was being very nice and even let Ruff pick out a nice flower. Which was weird cause she hates flowers, I personally find them quite pretty, especially the stinky ones! Oh and blue ones, I like the blue flowers that used to grow outs-"

"So Ruffnut met this guy while you were out shopping?" Hiccup added in. Proving that he was also intrigued by the story.

"Oh yeah! Right, so this guy was getting real up close and personal and my sis was getting that dumb look in her eye and kept pushing me away. She didn't have to do that. I got the hint, the stupid foul-smelling-"

"So you left her behind with some strange dude?" Snotlout. 

"Well, I wasn't gonna watch! Besides I think she lead him to our hut last I checked, which is why I am gonna sleep out here tonight. I'd rather not go through another night of my blissed-out sis." He said, mumbling the last part. 

"Well, I don't blame you." Astrid keyed in.

"Thank you Astrid, I knew you'd understand."

"But you really shouldn't sleep out here tonight. I can already see clouds coming in. It's gonna rain." She keyed in. 

For his part, Tuffnut looked concerned for about two seconds before he shrugged, "That's fine. I like the rain."

"Not when you catch hyperthermia." Fishlegs added, "It's supposed to get real cold tonight. Perhaps you should just ignore her in your own room." He suggested.

"I don't have my own room. I sleep under her bed." Tuffnut said, sounding confused as if this should be common knowledge. 

"What, really?" Snotlout snorted out. Laughing loudly as he pointed at Tuffnut. Feeling chastised and not understanding why; Tuffnut crossed his arms.

"Why don't you sleep i-, why don't you have your own bed Tuff?" Hiccup asked. 

"I've never had my own bed. It's the twin way, sometimes I just sleep up with her but usually, I just sleep under the bed." He explained. 

"We can get you one." Fishlegs offered.

"Why?" Tuffnut asked. Honestly sounding confused. It was common knowledge in Berk that the Thorston family was... poor to put it simply. Still, Hiccup figured they could have at least could have afforded a bed for Tuffnut. Frankly, if Hiccup had known he would have somehow offered up his own. He just always thought that it was one of Tuffnut's weird jokes. 

"What about if you bring home a girl of your own?" Snotlout asked. "Don't think she would appreciate you dragging them under your sister's bed." He explained. "So, without a bed of your own, what would you do?"

"Go to her hut instead," Tuffnut responded. 

"Fair enough, but I wanna lay in on this too." Astrid piped up before asking her own version of it, "What if you were already at your hut when you start feeling it. What would you do then?"

"We are not having this conversation." Hiccup suddenly piped up but the others ignored him as they kept their eyes on Tuffnut, waiting for his response. He just sat their petting chicken before finally, he shrugged. 

"Go to... her hut... instead?" He finally answered although he sounded unsure. 

"Ha! Not when you are horny. All logic goes out the window when the blood is pumping." Snotlout cut in with a laugh. Reaching over he gave Tuffnut a slap on the back causing him to immediately slap back, the two about to break into a fight, however, Astrid was stuck on something.

"Tuff, have you ever, you know felt that way before?" She asked, ignoring Hiccups loud slurping as the boy tried really hard to ignore the conversation the three were having. Fishlegs was also quiet but he didn't make his discomfort known, in fact, he almost seemed intrigued in his own way. He really didn't know a lot about the Twins besides that they were annoying, so this felt like a step forward into learning more about them. 

For the first time in the night, Tuff actually looked uncomfortable at the direction the topic went. "I don't think so..." He responded, pulling away from Snotlout who was immediately going to tease him. 

"What? What kind of guy are you? You never felt horny. Pfft, no wonder you don't seem to have an interest in anyone. Oh, man are you missing out though. Even alone it can fee-"

A cough from Astrid reminded Snotlout that they were all still listening. Before he could dig himself a deeper hole though, Tuffnut spoke again.

"I mean I have felt it before! I just, I never looked at a woman and had it happen. Like, how its supposed to. The odd times I have gotten aroused, I blame on adrenaline." He explained.

"Have you ever looked at a man and felt it? Also why am I keying into this sex ed, nonsense." Hiccup sighed. 

"No... I don't think so." Tuff responded looking kind of uncomfortable as he rocked in place. This was not what he expected when he came here to hide.

"Have you ever kissed anyone?" Astrid keyed in.

"Hiccup." Tuffnut responded easily. There was confusion for a moment before Fishlegs was the one to remember.

"That was an accident though. And I distinctly remember you being quite upset and embarrassed." He stated.

Tuffnut nodded, "Yeah! Wasn't expected to be kissed! Thought he was just coming over to yell at me." He mumbled. There were a few laughs at that surprisingly although Snotlout didn't want to let it go.

"So you've never wanted to fuck anyone? Kiss them even?" He questioned. Tuffnut was silent before shaking his head. "Maybe kiss, I don't know," he said clearly looking around as if to find a way to leave this area. He hadn't finished making his spot after all and through the talk he had put his helmet back on.

"Just let it go Snotlout." Hiccup stated. Happy that most of them were starting to move on. Although still give some curious gazes.

Snotlout however suddenly had an idea, "Kiss me!" He suggested. That caused a few surprised what's. And Tuffnut to look just confused and embarrassed as all eyes turned to him.

"What?"

"Kiss me! You haven't had a true kiss before so maybe you just don't know what it's like." Snotlout explained.

"You want him to kiss you?" Astrid asked in clear surprise as she crossed her arms. Snotlout just ignored them keeping his eyes on Tuffnut. Although he did realize the problem with everyone around. So moving forward he grabbed Tuffs arm before dragging him out of the hut. Tuff surprisingly letting him although looking down when they were alone.

"Um yeah so..." Snotlout started running a hand through his hair. "Just.. I didn't mean to... gah! Emotions!" He complained.

"You are one of the most emotional vikings I know." Tuffnut answered with a bit of amusement. Snotlout smiled before once again grew awkward.

"Please, maybe it'll spark something?" Snotlout finally said. Tuffnut just watched him, clearly thinking it over as he looked Snotlout up and down.

"Do you like me?" He suddenly demanded. Causing Snotlouts face to go beet red.

"L-like you, no, I mean you are my best friend. Just want to... help out." Snotlout stammered. Tuff just frowned before looking down. Kicking the ground with his shoes before sighing and suddenly standing up straight. Walking over to Snotlout and reaching for the others hands.

"This is going to be gross." He commented before leaning forward and kissing Snotlout gently on the lips. Snotlout frozen for a moment before easily kissing back. Squeezing Tuffs hands and trying to coax more out of the rigid twin. Pushing his body against the other hopefully.

Snotlout was in valhalla but to soon Tuffnut suddenly pulled away and he remembered what this was about. Wiping at his mouth he stepped away from the other before clearing his throat. "Um so... did you feel anything?" He asked. Unable to stop the hope from his voice.

Tuff shook his head, "Felt awkward." He admitted before noticing Snotlouts crushed face. The twin felt something at that moment at least. So moving forward he grabbed a hold of Snotlouts hands. He may not be the smartest when it come to these things but it didn't take a genius to realize what was happening here. Ever since Snotlout had announced Tuff as his best friend, he had been uncomfortably close at times.

He hated this mushy stuff though but despite Snotlout pretending to be hard he knew the boy was as soft as a kitten. "I didn't feel anything like that but... I do feel things for you. Just not sure they are the same feelings you have for me. I like being around you. I don't get squeamish when you touch me. I even let you kiss me for Lokis sake.. I just.. I think there is something wrong with me." Tuff admitted.

"Theres millions wrong with you Tuffy." Snotlout commented although frowning he pulled the other into a hug. "I'm sorry." Snotlout said.

Tuff frowned, Snotlout never apologized for anything. And Tuff honestly didn't know what he was apologizing for. "For what?"

"For falling in love with you." Snotlout whispered. So quiet that Tuff almost didn't hear it but he did and he found himself tensing without meaning too.

"Oh gods here they come." Tuff commented feeling his eyes start to water. Turning away he couldn't help the sob that escaped. Snotlout loved him, like love loved him? He had never experienced that. He never had someone love him, just people tolerate him. It honestly warmed him.

Sniffling he was relieved Snotlout didn't leave and decided not to comment on the tears he saw on the others face. "I- I still don't know what I feel when I look at you. But I do know I feel happy around you. Maybe you... are right.. we can... explore?" Tuff suggested. Causing Snotlout to brighten.

"Really?" He asked.

"Yeah but... don't get your hope up. I surprisingly don't want to see you heartbroken." Tuff admitted.

Snotlout however nodded and the two shared an awkward watery smile.

//Lol why did I write this. Probally only going to post on tumblr but... enjoy!

[easyfoodnetwork]

There Will Be No Grand Reopening for Restaurants

Gary He/Eater NY

Masked waiters, half-empty dining rooms, and mobile ordering may all be part of the new reality when restaurants open their doors again

In a press conference this week to discuss the gradual reopening of public spaces in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco restaurateur, referred to himself as “someone, like yourself, that looks forward to going back out and having dinner.” But when California’s restaurants do reopen — minus an estimated 30 percent that could permanently close during the COVID-19 crisis, according to the state’s restaurant lobby — Newsom’s regular table might not look like it used to.

“You may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves,��� suggested the governor, drawing on previous remarks made by California public health director Dr. Sonia Angell. “Maybe a face mask, a dinner where the menu is disposable, where the tables, half of the tables in that restaurant no longer appear, where your temperature is checked before you walk into the establishment.”

The message to restaurant operators and patrons: Don’t expect a grand reopening. A rolling soft opening might be more like it.

Restaurant owners are gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models

In order for the public to return to spaces like bars and restaurants before a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is available, which could be more than a year, public health experts say there are some major prerequisites for safety. Those include expanded capacity for COVID-19 testing, perhaps new antibody tests to show who has previously been infected, and a system of contact tracing (a process of identifying who may have been exposed to the virus) by either manual or digital methods.

Last night, the White House released “Guidelines for Opening America Again,” which included its own proposed criteria for states to reopen: a two-week downward trajectory of positive tests and flu-like and COVID-19-like symptoms reported, hospital capacity to treat all patients without crisis care, and “robust testing” for health care workers including “emerging antibody tests.” But according to the CDC, its own evaluation of antibody tests won’t be completed until “late April.”

Politicians like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have pointed out that requirements, particularly around testing, haven’t been met. “The more testing, the more open the economy. But there’s not enough national capacity to do this,” Cuomo, who plans to coordinate New York’s reopening with like-minded governors from neighboring states, said in a recent meeting. “We can’t do it yet.” A mix of private and public testing in the U.S. is now evaluating just about 100,000 cases a day; experts like Nobel laureate economist Paul Romer suggest 22 million tests per day are necessary.

That all leaves restaurant and bar owners with the difficult and maddening task of planning for an uncertain future, gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models. “The restaurant industry seems particularly vulnerable to a long crisis,” write the authors of a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Restaurateurs told researchers they have a 72 percent chance of survival if the crisis lasts one month — but if it persists for four months, they give themselves just a 30 percent chance of survival. If it lasts for six months, they put their chances at 15 percent. Should restaurants apply for more loans on the assumption that they won’t reopen until later? Or should they seek less debt hoping to open sooner?

If full reopening is six months away rather than two, for example, choosing to stay open for takeout and delivery — the only path available to most restaurants in the U.S. — might not be worth the trouble. “I wanted to protect as many employees’ job status as I could, and I wanted to show spirit and feed the community,” Andy Ricker, chef and owner of Portland’s Pok Pok restaurant group, told Eater this month when he decided to close takeout and delivery operations. “I don’t think anyone who is staying open is really thinking they’ll make money — most of them are scared that if they close, they’ll lose everything.”

Lingering questions about the virus itself complicate long-term planning, too. “There are a lot of unanswered questions about COVID-19,” says Stefan Baral, an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “One is how infectious is someone in that asymptomatic or presymptomatic stage? And it’s very much an open question.”

When more is clear and restaurants do return, one guideline that experts are likely to agree upon is limiting restaurant capacities to allow for better physical distancing. “The restaurant industry and bar industry are going to have to work closely with public health officials regarding spacing, which is now guided mostly by fire safety rules rather than public safety measures,” Baral says. The World Health Organization echoes the call for these distancing measures at restaurants in guidance geared toward the hospitality sector.

This possible new normal for the U.S. is already underway in areas that experienced COVID-19 before North America, such as China. There, restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten reopened his businesses in Shanghai and Guangzhou at the end of March. “When you walk into the restaurant, it’s all government rules — there are a lot of restrictions,” says Vongerichten. “Taking the temperature from all the chefs, taking temperature from the customers as well; no table bigger than four, spaced six to eight feet between tables. Nobody touches money, so people go to an app for the restaurant on their phone, the waiter just brings wine, water, and food.

“It’s very limited, restricted, but it seems to be working,” Vongerichten says. Business in China is back about 40 or 50 percent, he estimates. But the strangest change is the sound: Nobody talks to anybody, and it’s deathly quiet in the dining room.

Today, as China begins to re-open, “when you walk into a restaurant, it’s all government rules”

“I hope we don’t have to do all that here [in the U.S.],” says Vongerichten. “I’d prefer not to open like that… it’s a very different model now.”

Diminished capacity in restaurants would also fundamentally change their revenue model, says Anjan Mitra, owner of the longstanding San Francisco restaurant DOSA. “The whole idea with restaurants is to squeeze in as many people as possible. You’re paying rent for the month, and you’re open for like five hours a night,” he says. “Now if you say we have to reduce our density, our capacity, restaurants are going to focus a lot more on online delivery and pickup.” During San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order, DOSA has continued off-premises sales, like delivery and prepared food sold through Whole Foods.

“Restaurants need to plan for what 50 percent capacity dining-in looks like,” the restaurateur Dave Chang tweeted. “We are way past due for an updated national protocol for food safety in a COVID-19 world. Restaurant workers need to know what PPE to use. These are things we can plan for now.”

Wolfgang Puck is another restaurant owner starting to think about the challenges of this new reality. “If we don’t have as many tables, we won’t need as many employees,” he points out. And back-of-the-house social distancing and safety for employees needs to be considered, too — employers in states like New York are now required to provide cloth face masks for employees.

Restaurant workers, many of whom don’t have health care in the first place and might rely on income for medical costs, are also statistically at higher risk for COVID-19. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black and brown people made up 40 percent of restaurant workers last year, and in Chicago, for example, where black residents make up 29 percent of the city’s population, 72 percent of Chicagoans who have died from the disease were black.

“COVID is highlighting the inequalities we already see in our society, both socially and [in] how it relates to health,” says Dustin Duncan, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

As New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it in an ABC appearance this week, “ultimately, it’s inequity that’s the preexisting condition.” That inequality affects us all, she argued. “When the person who is preparing your food can’t see a doctor, that puts you at risk — that puts all of us at risk.”

Another contingency that restaurants might need to plan for is rolling quarantines and shutdowns in response to subsequent outbreaks. In Hong Kong, the strategy is called “suppress and lift”: Rather than impose a complete shutdown, the city has fought COVID-19 cases with rigorous testing — thus far, it has conducted 13,800 tests per million people — and quarantine policies for the infected, while allowing businesses like restaurants to stay open as usual. When cases spiked from 149 in March to 1,005 in April, Hong Kong rolled out its “suppress” strategy: Bars were closed for a few weeks and new restrictions were imposed on restaurants, such as capping them at 50 percent capacity and requiring they check customers’ temperatures at the door. As a result, the uptick in cases already appears to be stifled, writes Science magazine. On April 23, bars are scheduled to reopen.

Seen less elegantly, that strategy could also be called “playing whack-a-mole” with the virus, Ed Yong writes in the Atlantic. It’s a game we, as a society, might need to keep playing until a vaccine is developed, and experts at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning policy group, are worried about the lack of clear rules. “Without a coherent, evidence-based plan in place — a path forward, clear benchmarks, and an end in sight — the public and government officials may grow weary of physical distancing prematurely,” they write. “The result would be repeated waves of exponential transmission followed by lockdowns, wreaking havoc on the economy and peoples’ lives.” If restaurants reopen, then reclose, will they be entitled to a second wave of disaster and stimulus loans, for example? “It will be far more devastating to our economy — and to public health — to experience waves and waves of virus response rather than properly return to normal when it is truly safe,” the Center for American Progress argues.

This week, as President Donald Trump publicly flirted with the idea of reopening the U.S. economy quickly, the World Health Organization offered criteria for countries thinking about relaxing their mitigation measures, including that of adequate health system capacity. “Control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up.”

The way down could also look like a rickety staircase, with secondary outbreaks causing plateaus or even upticks. During that time and beyond it, mobile order-ahead and pickup, as at Starbucks and other chains, could become a ubiquitous tool, some experts predict. Social media, meanwhile, could offer some help to restaurants and bars, many of which are already beginning to lean heavily on their social media channels for a sense of connection with customers and updates on takeout and delivery offerings. As they potentially reopen (and reclose) in spurts, essential updates on Instagram about who’s open and in what capacity could be crucial for sales.

But what restaurant can possibly incorporate the possibility of rolling lockdowns into its business plan? “I don’t know how much planning you can really do for it,” says Ian Boden, chef-owner of the Shack in Staunton, Virginia. “The goal is to stay as lean as you possibly can.”

“Lean” is a good way to describe the Shack, a tiny prix fixe restaurant that was forced to close just weeks after receiving a three-star rave from the Washington Post. When the Shack does eventually reopen, Boden expects that tastes will have changed. Because he anticipates fewer tourists seeking destination dining, he’ll have to scrap the prix fixe he’s spent years honing in favor of less expensive, more casual food. “It’s a little heartbreaking, but I have bills to pay, I have people that rely on me and depend on me, so I have to think strategically,” Boden says.

Chef Dan Barber, famous for his tasting menus at Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns, seems to agree. “We will not be returning to normal even when we’re allowed to,” Barber told Time. “The idea that people are going to be spending money in restaurants is preposterous. We’re headed for an enormous recession.”

Maybe so, but Stefan Baral of Johns Hopkins does expect people will want to return to public life, including restaurant dining rooms. It will even do us some good. “Part of the idea of returning to normalcy is that businesses are able to function — but [it’s] also that people are able to socialize and enjoy themselves as a core part of wellbeing,” Baral says.

When more of us do return to socializing, other epidemiologists, like Columbia’s Dustin Duncan, hope they’ll see public health held in higher regard than before. In restaurants, Duncan predicts “increased attention to prevention and health and well-being�� of both patrons and workers.

“I think there will be a new normal, and we’ll also see and understand that we aren’t individual actors, but that we’re all connected,” he says. “What happens in one place affects another, what happens in one person’s body impacts another person’s.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2xDhH3k https://ift.tt/2XIPdjb

Gary He/Eater NY

Masked waiters, half-empty dining rooms, and mobile ordering may all be part of the new reality when restaurants open their doors again

In a press conference this week to discuss the gradual reopening of public spaces in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco restaurateur, referred to himself as “someone, like yourself, that looks forward to going back out and having dinner.” But when California’s restaurants do reopen — minus an estimated 30 percent that could permanently close during the COVID-19 crisis, according to the state’s restaurant lobby — Newsom’s regular table might not look like it used to.

“You may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves,” suggested the governor, drawing on previous remarks made by California public health director Dr. Sonia Angell. “Maybe a face mask, a dinner where the menu is disposable, where the tables, half of the tables in that restaurant no longer appear, where your temperature is checked before you walk into the establishment.”

The message to restaurant operators and patrons: Don’t expect a grand reopening. A rolling soft opening might be more like it.

Restaurant owners are gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models

In order for the public to return to spaces like bars and restaurants before a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is available, which could be more than a year, public health experts say there are some major prerequisites for safety. Those include expanded capacity for COVID-19 testing, perhaps new antibody tests to show who has previously been infected, and a system of contact tracing (a process of identifying who may have been exposed to the virus) by either manual or digital methods.

Last night, the White House released “Guidelines for Opening America Again,” which included its own proposed criteria for states to reopen: a two-week downward trajectory of positive tests and flu-like and COVID-19-like symptoms reported, hospital capacity to treat all patients without crisis care, and “robust testing” for health care workers including “emerging antibody tests.” But according to the CDC, its own evaluation of antibody tests won’t be completed until “late April.”

Politicians like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have pointed out that requirements, particularly around testing, haven’t been met. “The more testing, the more open the economy. But there’s not enough national capacity to do this,” Cuomo, who plans to coordinate New York’s reopening with like-minded governors from neighboring states, said in a recent meeting. “We can’t do it yet.” A mix of private and public testing in the U.S. is now evaluating just about 100,000 cases a day; experts like Nobel laureate economist Paul Romer suggest 22 million tests per day are necessary.

That all leaves restaurant and bar owners with the difficult and maddening task of planning for an uncertain future, gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models. “The restaurant industry seems particularly vulnerable to a long crisis,” write the authors of a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Restaurateurs told researchers they have a 72 percent chance of survival if the crisis lasts one month — but if it persists for four months, they give themselves just a 30 percent chance of survival. If it lasts for six months, they put their chances at 15 percent. Should restaurants apply for more loans on the assumption that they won’t reopen until later? Or should they seek less debt hoping to open sooner?

If full reopening is six months away rather than two, for example, choosing to stay open for takeout and delivery — the only path available to most restaurants in the U.S. — might not be worth the trouble. “I wanted to protect as many employees’ job status as I could, and I wanted to show spirit and feed the community,” Andy Ricker, chef and owner of Portland’s Pok Pok restaurant group, told Eater this month when he decided to close takeout and delivery operations. “I don’t think anyone who is staying open is really thinking they’ll make money — most of them are scared that if they close, they’ll lose everything.”

Lingering questions about the virus itself complicate long-term planning, too. “There are a lot of unanswered questions about COVID-19,” says Stefan Baral, an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “One is how infectious is someone in that asymptomatic or presymptomatic stage? And it’s very much an open question.”

When more is clear and restaurants do return, one guideline that experts are likely to agree upon is limiting restaurant capacities to allow for better physical distancing. “The restaurant industry and bar industry are going to have to work closely with public health officials regarding spacing, which is now guided mostly by fire safety rules rather than public safety measures,” Baral says. The World Health Organization echoes the call for these distancing measures at restaurants in guidance geared toward the hospitality sector.

This possible new normal for the U.S. is already underway in areas that experienced COVID-19 before North America, such as China. There, restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten reopened his businesses in Shanghai and Guangzhou at the end of March. “When you walk into the restaurant, it’s all government rules — there are a lot of restrictions,” says Vongerichten. “Taking the temperature from all the chefs, taking temperature from the customers as well; no table bigger than four, spaced six to eight feet between tables. Nobody touches money, so people go to an app for the restaurant on their phone, the waiter just brings wine, water, and food.

“It’s very limited, restricted, but it seems to be working,” Vongerichten says. Business in China is back about 40 or 50 percent, he estimates. But the strangest change is the sound: Nobody talks to anybody, and it’s deathly quiet in the dining room.

Today, as China begins to re-open, “when you walk into a restaurant, it’s all government rules”

“I hope we don’t have to do all that here [in the U.S.],” says Vongerichten. “I’d prefer not to open like that… it’s a very different model now.”

Diminished capacity in restaurants would also fundamentally change their revenue model, says Anjan Mitra, owner of the longstanding San Francisco restaurant DOSA. “The whole idea with restaurants is to squeeze in as many people as possible. You’re paying rent for the month, and you’re open for like five hours a night,” he says. “Now if you say we have to reduce our density, our capacity, restaurants are going to focus a lot more on online delivery and pickup.” During San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order, DOSA has continued off-premises sales, like delivery and prepared food sold through Whole Foods.

“Restaurants need to plan for what 50 percent capacity dining-in looks like,” the restaurateur Dave Chang tweeted. “We are way past due for an updated national protocol for food safety in a COVID-19 world. Restaurant workers need to know what PPE to use. These are things we can plan for now.”

Wolfgang Puck is another restaurant owner starting to think about the challenges of this new reality. “If we don’t have as many tables, we won’t need as many employees,” he points out. And back-of-the-house social distancing and safety for employees needs to be considered, too — employers in states like New York are now required to provide cloth face masks for employees.

Restaurant workers, many of whom don’t have health care in the first place and might rely on income for medical costs, are also statistically at higher risk for COVID-19. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black and brown people made up 40 percent of restaurant workers last year, and in Chicago, for example, where black residents make up 29 percent of the city’s population, 72 percent of Chicagoans who have died from the disease were black.

“COVID is highlighting the inequalities we already see in our society, both socially and [in] how it relates to health,” says Dustin Duncan, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

As New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it in an ABC appearance this week, “ultimately, it’s inequity that’s the preexisting condition.” That inequality affects us all, she argued. “When the person who is preparing your food can’t see a doctor, that puts you at risk — that puts all of us at risk.”

Another contingency that restaurants might need to plan for is rolling quarantines and shutdowns in response to subsequent outbreaks. In Hong Kong, the strategy is called “suppress and lift”: Rather than impose a complete shutdown, the city has fought COVID-19 cases with rigorous testing — thus far, it has conducted 13,800 tests per million people — and quarantine policies for the infected, while allowing businesses like restaurants to stay open as usual. When cases spiked from 149 in March to 1,005 in April, Hong Kong rolled out its “suppress” strategy: Bars were closed for a few weeks and new restrictions were imposed on restaurants, such as capping them at 50 percent capacity and requiring they check customers’ temperatures at the door. As a result, the uptick in cases already appears to be stifled, writes Science magazine. On April 23, bars are scheduled to reopen.

Seen less elegantly, that strategy could also be called “playing whack-a-mole” with the virus, Ed Yong writes in the Atlantic. It’s a game we, as a society, might need to keep playing until a vaccine is developed, and experts at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning policy group, are worried about the lack of clear rules. “Without a coherent, evidence-based plan in place — a path forward, clear benchmarks, and an end in sight — the public and government officials may grow weary of physical distancing prematurely,” they write. “The result would be repeated waves of exponential transmission followed by lockdowns, wreaking havoc on the economy and peoples’ lives.” If restaurants reopen, then reclose, will they be entitled to a second wave of disaster and stimulus loans, for example? “It will be far more devastating to our economy — and to public health — to experience waves and waves of virus response rather than properly return to normal when it is truly safe,” the Center for American Progress argues.

This week, as President Donald Trump publicly flirted with the idea of reopening the U.S. economy quickly, the World Health Organization offered criteria for countries thinking about relaxing their mitigation measures, including that of adequate health system capacity. “Control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up.”

The way down could also look like a rickety staircase, with secondary outbreaks causing plateaus or even upticks. During that time and beyond it, mobile order-ahead and pickup, as at Starbucks and other chains, could become a ubiquitous tool, some experts predict. Social media, meanwhile, could offer some help to restaurants and bars, many of which are already beginning to lean heavily on their social media channels for a sense of connection with customers and updates on takeout and delivery offerings. As they potentially reopen (and reclose) in spurts, essential updates on Instagram about who’s open and in what capacity could be crucial for sales.

But what restaurant can possibly incorporate the possibility of rolling lockdowns into its business plan? “I don’t know how much planning you can really do for it,” says Ian Boden, chef-owner of the Shack in Staunton, Virginia. “The goal is to stay as lean as you possibly can.”

“Lean” is a good way to describe the Shack, a tiny prix fixe restaurant that was forced to close just weeks after receiving a three-star rave from the Washington Post. When the Shack does eventually reopen, Boden expects that tastes will have changed. Because he anticipates fewer tourists seeking destination dining, he’ll have to scrap the prix fixe he’s spent years honing in favor of less expensive, more casual food. “It’s a little heartbreaking, but I have bills to pay, I have people that rely on me and depend on me, so I have to think strategically,” Boden says.

Chef Dan Barber, famous for his tasting menus at Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns, seems to agree. “We will not be returning to normal even when we’re allowed to,” Barber told Time. “The idea that people are going to be spending money in restaurants is preposterous. We’re headed for an enormous recession.”

Maybe so, but Stefan Baral of Johns Hopkins does expect people will want to return to public life, including restaurant dining rooms. It will even do us some good. “Part of the idea of returning to normalcy is that businesses are able to function — but [it’s] also that people are able to socialize and enjoy themselves as a core part of wellbeing,” Baral says.

When more of us do return to socializing, other epidemiologists, like Columbia’s Dustin Duncan, hope they’ll see public health held in higher regard than before. In restaurants, Duncan predicts “increased attention to prevention and health and well-being” of both patrons and workers.

“I think there will be a new normal, and we’ll also see and understand that we aren’t individual actors, but that we’re all connected,” he says. “What happens in one place affects another, what happens in one person’s body impacts another person’s.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2xDhH3k via Blogger https://ift.tt/3es7yHr

[easyfoodnetwork]

Gary He/Eater NY Masked waiters, half-empty dining rooms, and mobile ordering may all be part of the new reality when restaurants open their doors again In a press conference this week to discuss the gradual reopening of public spaces in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco restaurateur, referred to himself as “someone, like yourself, that looks forward to going back out and having dinner.” But when California’s restaurants do reopen — minus an estimated 30 percent that could permanently close during the COVID-19 crisis, according to the state’s restaurant lobby — Newsom’s regular table might not look like it used to. “You may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves,” suggested the governor, drawing on previous remarks made by California public health director Dr. Sonia Angell. “Maybe a face mask, a dinner where the menu is disposable, where the tables, half of the tables in that restaurant no longer appear, where your temperature is checked before you walk into the establishment.” The message to restaurant operators and patrons: Don’t expect a grand reopening. A rolling soft opening might be more like it. Restaurant owners are gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models In order for the public to return to spaces like bars and restaurants before a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is available, which could be more than a year, public health experts say there are some major prerequisites for safety. Those include expanded capacity for COVID-19 testing, perhaps new antibody tests to show who has previously been infected, and a system of contact tracing (a process of identifying who may have been exposed to the virus) by either manual or digital methods. Last night, the White House released “Guidelines for Opening America Again,” which included its own proposed criteria for states to reopen: a two-week downward trajectory of positive tests and flu-like and COVID-19-like symptoms reported, hospital capacity to treat all patients without crisis care, and “robust testing” for health care workers including “emerging antibody tests.” But according to the CDC, its own evaluation of antibody tests won’t be completed until “late April.” Politicians like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have pointed out that requirements, particularly around testing, haven’t been met. “The more testing, the more open the economy. But there’s not enough national capacity to do this,” Cuomo, who plans to coordinate New York’s reopening with like-minded governors from neighboring states, said in a recent meeting. “We can’t do it yet.” A mix of private and public testing in the U.S. is now evaluating just about 100,000 cases a day; experts like Nobel laureate economist Paul Romer suggest 22 million tests per day are necessary. That all leaves restaurant and bar owners with the difficult and maddening task of planning for an uncertain future, gaming out many possible reopening timelines and new business models. “The restaurant industry seems particularly vulnerable to a long crisis,” write the authors of a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Restaurateurs told researchers they have a 72 percent chance of survival if the crisis lasts one month — but if it persists for four months, they give themselves just a 30 percent chance of survival. If it lasts for six months, they put their chances at 15 percent. Should restaurants apply for more loans on the assumption that they won’t reopen until later? Or should they seek less debt hoping to open sooner? If full reopening is six months away rather than two, for example, choosing to stay open for takeout and delivery — the only path available to most restaurants in the U.S. — might not be worth the trouble. “I wanted to protect as many employees’ job status as I could, and I wanted to show spirit and feed the community,” Andy Ricker, chef and owner of Portland’s Pok Pok restaurant group, told Eater this month when he decided to close takeout and delivery operations. “I don’t think anyone who is staying open is really thinking they’ll make money — most of them are scared that if they close, they’ll lose everything.” Lingering questions about the virus itself complicate long-term planning, too. “There are a lot of unanswered questions about COVID-19,” says Stefan Baral, an associate professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “One is how infectious is someone in that asymptomatic or presymptomatic stage? And it’s very much an open question.” When more is clear and restaurants do return, one guideline that experts are likely to agree upon is limiting restaurant capacities to allow for better physical distancing. “The restaurant industry and bar industry are going to have to work closely with public health officials regarding spacing, which is now guided mostly by fire safety rules rather than public safety measures,” Baral says. The World Health Organization echoes the call for these distancing measures at restaurants in guidance geared toward the hospitality sector. This possible new normal for the U.S. is already underway in areas that experienced COVID-19 before North America, such as China. There, restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten reopened his businesses in Shanghai and Guangzhou at the end of March. “When you walk into the restaurant, it’s all government rules — there are a lot of restrictions,” says Vongerichten. “Taking the temperature from all the chefs, taking temperature from the customers as well; no table bigger than four, spaced six to eight feet between tables. Nobody touches money, so people go to an app for the restaurant on their phone, the waiter just brings wine, water, and food. “It’s very limited, restricted, but it seems to be working,” Vongerichten says. Business in China is back about 40 or 50 percent, he estimates. But the strangest change is the sound: Nobody talks to anybody, and it’s deathly quiet in the dining room. Today, as China begins to re-open, “when you walk into a restaurant, it’s all government rules” “I hope we don’t have to do all that here [in the U.S.],” says Vongerichten. “I’d prefer not to open like that… it’s a very different model now.” Diminished capacity in restaurants would also fundamentally change their revenue model, says Anjan Mitra, owner of the longstanding San Francisco restaurant DOSA. “The whole idea with restaurants is to squeeze in as many people as possible. You’re paying rent for the month, and you’re open for like five hours a night,” he says. “Now if you say we have to reduce our density, our capacity, restaurants are going to focus a lot more on online delivery and pickup.” During San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order, DOSA has continued off-premises sales, like delivery and prepared food sold through Whole Foods. “Restaurants need to plan for what 50 percent capacity dining-in looks like,” the restaurateur Dave Chang tweeted. “We are way past due for an updated national protocol for food safety in a COVID-19 world. Restaurant workers need to know what PPE to use. These are things we can plan for now.” Wolfgang Puck is another restaurant owner starting to think about the challenges of this new reality. “If we don’t have as many tables, we won’t need as many employees,” he points out. And back-of-the-house social distancing and safety for employees needs to be considered, too — employers in states like New York are now required to provide cloth face masks for employees. Restaurant workers, many of whom don’t have health care in the first place and might rely on income for medical costs, are also statistically at higher risk for COVID-19. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black and brown people made up 40 percent of restaurant workers last year, and in Chicago, for example, where black residents make up 29 percent of the city’s population, 72 percent of Chicagoans who have died from the disease were black. “COVID is highlighting the inequalities we already see in our society, both socially and [in] how it relates to health,” says Dustin Duncan, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. As New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it in an ABC appearance this week, “ultimately, it’s inequity that’s the preexisting condition.” That inequality affects us all, she argued. “When the person who is preparing your food can’t see a doctor, that puts you at risk — that puts all of us at risk.” Another contingency that restaurants might need to plan for is rolling quarantines and shutdowns in response to subsequent outbreaks. In Hong Kong, the strategy is called “suppress and lift”: Rather than impose a complete shutdown, the city has fought COVID-19 cases with rigorous testing — thus far, it has conducted 13,800 tests per million people — and quarantine policies for the infected, while allowing businesses like restaurants to stay open as usual. When cases spiked from 149 in March to 1,005 in April, Hong Kong rolled out its “suppress” strategy: Bars were closed for a few weeks and new restrictions were imposed on restaurants, such as capping them at 50 percent capacity and requiring they check customers’ temperatures at the door. As a result, the uptick in cases already appears to be stifled, writes Science magazine. On April 23, bars are scheduled to reopen. Seen less elegantly, that strategy could also be called “playing whack-a-mole” with the virus, Ed Yong writes in the Atlantic. It’s a game we, as a society, might need to keep playing until a vaccine is developed, and experts at the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning policy group, are worried about the lack of clear rules. “Without a coherent, evidence-based plan in place — a path forward, clear benchmarks, and an end in sight — the public and government officials may grow weary of physical distancing prematurely,” they write. “The result would be repeated waves of exponential transmission followed by lockdowns, wreaking havoc on the economy and peoples’ lives.” If restaurants reopen, then reclose, will they be entitled to a second wave of disaster and stimulus loans, for example? “It will be far more devastating to our economy — and to public health — to experience waves and waves of virus response rather than properly return to normal when it is truly safe,” the Center for American Progress argues. This week, as President Donald Trump publicly flirted with the idea of reopening the U.S. economy quickly, the World Health Organization offered criteria for countries thinking about relaxing their mitigation measures, including that of adequate health system capacity. “Control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “In other words, the way down is much slower than the way up.” The way down could also look like a rickety staircase, with secondary outbreaks causing plateaus or even upticks. During that time and beyond it, mobile order-ahead and pickup, as at Starbucks and other chains, could become a ubiquitous tool, some experts predict. Social media, meanwhile, could offer some help to restaurants and bars, many of which are already beginning to lean heavily on their social media channels for a sense of connection with customers and updates on takeout and delivery offerings. As they potentially reopen (and reclose) in spurts, essential updates on Instagram about who’s open and in what capacity could be crucial for sales. But what restaurant can possibly incorporate the possibility of rolling lockdowns into its business plan? “I don’t know how much planning you can really do for it,” says Ian Boden, chef-owner of the Shack in Staunton, Virginia. “The goal is to stay as lean as you possibly can.” “Lean” is a good way to describe the Shack, a tiny prix fixe restaurant that was forced to close just weeks after receiving a three-star rave from the Washington Post. When the Shack does eventually reopen, Boden expects that tastes will have changed. Because he anticipates fewer tourists seeking destination dining, he’ll have to scrap the prix fixe he’s spent years honing in favor of less expensive, more casual food. “It’s a little heartbreaking, but I have bills to pay, I have people that rely on me and depend on me, so I have to think strategically,” Boden says. Chef Dan Barber, famous for his tasting menus at Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns, seems to agree. “We will not be returning to normal even when we’re allowed to,” Barber told Time. “The idea that people are going to be spending money in restaurants is preposterous. We’re headed for an enormous recession.” Maybe so, but Stefan Baral of Johns Hopkins does expect people will want to return to public life, including restaurant dining rooms. It will even do us some good. “Part of the idea of returning to normalcy is that businesses are able to function — but [it’s] also that people are able to socialize and enjoy themselves as a core part of wellbeing,” Baral says. When more of us do return to socializing, other epidemiologists, like Columbia’s Dustin Duncan, hope they’ll see public health held in higher regard than before. In restaurants, Duncan predicts “increased attention to prevention and health and well-being” of both patrons and workers. “I think there will be a new normal, and we’ll also see and understand that we aren’t individual actors, but that we’re all connected,” he says. “What happens in one place affects another, what happens in one person’s body impacts another person’s.” from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2xDhH3k

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/04/there-will-be-no-grand-reopening-for.html