The global yet local disappearance of cafe-society culture:
My father made a hard-working but decent living as a neighborhood Chinese restaurant waiter, to afford our nice home, educations, and family life.
What an alien, surrealistic, and perhaps extinct concept now. My mother thoroughly enjoyed a BYO dinner at the Union Square Cafe bar, during September, and recalled it wistfully last night during a Facetime call.
WSJ article on the unknown unknowns for urban dining.
While it is likely that many existing restaurants will go out of business prior to a vaccine becoming widely available, I don’t believe that fine dining per se (no pun intended) will not make a resurgence. The folks who have the wherewithal to patronize these types of restaurants are not the ones who will be most impacted and there will be considerable pent-up demand. What would be nice is if all of the current recognition of restaurant workers and other food service providers would translate into higher wages (not holding my breath).
The conflicting issue is that, depending on social distancing rules, establishments may be more in need of the profits from wine since they will now need to squeeze every dollar out of a reduced number of seats. It will not be easy either way.
How it may be done. Or attempted.
That one guy is graduating and he can’t even sit correctly?
Who is doing the hoping, besides us plebes? Anyone with actual power?
A bunch of wine geeks just hoping. But restaurants are going to be needing business fast. They may not oppose cork age to the degree they do now.
Interesting direction this thread has taken. Crazy its been less than two months. I have no idea still where things are heading, but I have a few semi random thoughts. Just thinking out loud. Food/dining/bars are truly what I “like to do most” in my free time. Im far from ITB and mostly an average dude. I live in Chicago.
I think bringing your own “anything” into a restaurant is going to be a no, no. Restaurants are going to have all kinds of protocol in place when they are able to reopen, and I don’t think most will be ok with me bringing in my own wine. My 2c. I hope I am wrong.
I toss back and forth what dining may look like. Will it cost 2x to dine out since the dining room will be half full? Will a ~50 seat restaurant in a neighborhood like mine even be able to open under that model? What does it look like when a restaurant tries to continue servicing delivery/carry out and a half full dining room? Why would I want to even dine in that environment? And especially at twice the cost?
Fine Dining/tasting menus - I think these can come back and make it work easiest. They can charge more money to a wealthy clientele, who have been less affected by the pandemic crisis. Tables far apart, etc. That said, do i really want to pay $500+pp to eat at a Michelin star restaurant and be served by someone with a mask and gloves? I hate putting it that way, but serious question.
Did we witness the peak of ‘food culture’ in the 2000s and 2010s? I think of how influential people like Anthony Bourdain were to me and how that influenced my travel and adventurous eating in places like Thailand and Mexico City. Isn’t that also what has created “foodies” and instagram culture? I wonder if people are just going to be more timid food and travel wise for some time. I think that ultimately affects the ‘food culture’ I have come to love in Chicago.
Bars are screwed. I love love love cocktail bars. I can’t even imagine when it becomes OK to go to a favorite cocktail spot, late at night, and catch “that vibe”. Sigh.
Fine dining (Michelin luxe places) seems like it was on it’s way out prior to the pandemic. Not totally, but still a trend. He’ll, billionaires won’t support it, see the NYC resto thread re Eleven Mad.
Went to a dinner and concert in a restaurant yesterday - no outside anything allowed. New health regulation in San Rafael (SF bay area).
A wistful memory at Gramercy Tavern…
Not here. Same policy as before at my regular places. Napa Valley revolves around wine and its wine community. We bring, we taste, we share…and we tip our regular establishments nice amounts of money, even if corkage is waived. This is a very special community in regards to this.
So happy to be so wrong on this one. We have a dinner res friday night at a favorite in our neighborhood (Daisies, here in Chicago) and are excited to be bringing along some wine.