Restaurant Dining

[audreyh1]

Honestly I can't even imagine why anyone would choose to patronize that type of restaurant unless they are looking for a sports bar experience. Saints fans or LSU fans here look for that sort of experience, for example. I don't begrudge them their preferences, but that doesn't mean that I have to go to that sort of restaurant. There are plenty of independent restaurants in the US that are just as quiet, or quieter, than European restaurants.

Unfortunately it’s common in my state. Very few quiet dining places.

 

[tmm99]

I am also in Ontario, and am hoping that it will only be 16 weeks apart, but considering how many screw ups that we have had in the rollout, I will not be surprised if it is longer. From a glass half-full perspective, I reconcile this by saying that we are adding to the body of scientific knowledge of population wide effectiveness for longer time between doses...LOL!

I had my first AZ shot in early March as part of a trial roll out in pharmacies. We shall see if I get the second one by July.

I seem to recall reading about a study that showed immunity with the AZ shot actually increased after 2 weeks, peaking many weeks later, but like everything else with this virus, we are still on the steep part of the learning curve with the vaccines as well.

One shot is better than nothing, but it hasn't changed anything in our personal behaviours yet.

So do you have to schedule for your 2nd shot yourself? In my case (I got my Pfizer from a medical centre), they booked me for my 2nd shot at the centre right after my 1st shot.

They were saying on the news that AstraZeneca is not exactly flying off the shelves, so I think you'll get your 2nd shot much sooner than 16 weeks. I can't remember which province or city, but they had thousands of AstraZeneca ready to be administered at one mass vaccination site, but only a couple of hundred people showed up.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/are-covi...ntario-freezers-here-s-what-we-know-1.5389187

 

[W2R]

Unfortunately it’s common in my state. Very few quiet dining places.

True. I suspect that as you imply, that could be a local Texan thing. When I lived in College Station, Texas (for 13 years), we almost never ate out. Who wants to eat in a restaurant full of drunk Aggies? Not my late ex and I, that's for sure. The noise would have been over-the-top. We did hear of a few less boisterous places, but we didn't have much money at that time so we just didn't check any of them out or eat out very often. In New Orleans, Honolulu, and some other areas where I have lived, there are reasonably quiet restaurants.

 

[Badger]

We had our second Moderna vaccine in mid-Feb. but still haven't dined inside a restaurant. However, we don't dine out much anyway. Just not impressed with the atmosphere and quality of the food of most restaurants. We are fortunate to live in an area with an abundance of fresh seafood markets so baked, broiled, pan fried fish (no breading to spoil it), shrimp, oysters, etc. at home is our choice. Occasionally a 1.5" steak or chicken finds its way to the grill or I will prepare one of many Italian dishes. The great majority of restaurants are just too noisy with loud music and loud talking you can hear from across the room since they cater to the 20/30 somethings and I feel like I am being rushed to finish. So we have only used take-out a couple of times and once we ate outside to try out a vegetarian restaurant.


Cheers!

 

[jcfradio]

So do you have to schedule for your 2nd shot yourself? In my case (I got my Pfizer from a medical centre), they booked me for my 2nd shot at the centre right after my 1st shot.

They were saying on the news that AstraZeneca is not exactly flying off the shelves, so I think you'll get your 2nd shot much sooner than 16 weeks. I can't remember which province or city, but they had thousands of AstraZeneca ready to be administered at one mass vaccination site, but only a couple of hundred people showed up.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/are-covi...ntario-freezers-here-s-what-we-know-1.5389187

Yes, we were told to check back in late May to book a second shot ourselves.

To go back to the OP topic of restaurant dining, we have only done a couple of patio dinners last summer. I also would have a socially distanced outdoor beer after our golf games last year. We were never big restaurant eaters since we figure that we can cook as well as most restaurant cooks and having travelled overseas extensively before retiring, we know what taste profiles many other cuisines should have (ie. regional Italian pasta styles vs chain Italian restaurants). And with our frequent lockdowns, we have lots of time to cook things.

Since there will be no in-restaurant dining in a few weeks when DH and I have our 40th wedding anniversary, we are going to prepare ourselves a dinner of beef tenderloin, scallops and shrimp at a fraction of the cost of a take out meal. We have found that we have just had to adapt through COVID - "when life hands you lemons, make limoncello!"

 

[harllee]

We have been eating indoors pretty regularly here in Chapel Hill ever since we arrived a few months back. I have noticed it is getting much more lax with mask wearing very recently. My Wife is working at a urgent care clinic and says the Doctors/Nurses/Administrators have really become lax after they were vaccinated.

I have noticed the same thing here in Chapel Hill especially among the students. Back in the winter all the students wore masks, now I am seeing more and more without masks. Last night there was a large party at the sorority across the street .

 

[disneysteve]

That’s a huge difference between the US and Europe dining in. Restaurants are noisy due to terrible acoustics, people talk louder to hear each other. Music is playing-sometimes loud. It’s just not pleasant.

There are certainly places that are noisy as you describe, but there are plenty of nice restaurants, too. We avoid the noisy ones and stick to the calm ones. We're not into the sports bar or nightclub or live music scene (while dining). We go out to enjoy the food and conversation, so we choose places that provide that atmosphere. At least in our area (south Jersey/Philly) there is an abundant supply of them.

 

[disneysteve]

My Wife is working at a urgent care clinic and says the Doctors/Nurses/Administrators have really become lax after they were vaccinated.

That's really disturbing. I work in urgent care and I personally know a couple of coworkers who came down with COVID despite being fully vaccinated. We're still at high risk because we're in contact with COVID patients on a daily basis. If anybody is going to get it, it's going to be us.


If we can't even get the healthcare workers to comply with guidelines, we're in bad shape.

 

[REWahoo]

DW and I went to a dine-in lunch today at our favorite spot, a Chinese restaurant where we've only been getting take-out for the past 13 months. We had a nice talk with the owner, who said they had delayed opening for indoor dining until two weeks ago to insure everyone on the staff had been vaccinated. Seating is limited to every-other table and all the staff wore masks.

She told us they had already encountered a couple of "unpleasant" customers who insisted on being seated at one of the roped-off tables when all open tables were full. Shouted at the staff, gave a bad review on Yelp!, etc.

I'll never understand the mentality of someone who complains about an eating establishment being too cautious about making one of their customers sick.

EDIT: FWIW, the owner vented to us that while she and her entire restaurant staff were vaccinated, her husband, her friend who was a first responder, and another friend who was a school nurse were not planning to get the shot.

 

[Dtail]

DW and I went to a dine-in lunch today at our favorite spot, a Chinese restaurant where we've only been getting take-out for the past 13 months. We had a nice talk with the owner, who said they had delayed opening for indoor dining until two weeks ago to insure everyone on the staff had been vaccinated. Seating is limited to every-other table and all the staff wore masks.

She told us they had already encountered a couple of "unpleasant" customers who insisted on being seated at one of the roped-off tables when all open tables were full. Shouted at the staff, gave a bad review on Yelp!, etc.

I'll never understand the mentality of someone who complains about an eating establishment being too cautious about making one of their customers sick.

EDIT: FWIW, the owner vented to us that while she and her entire restaurant staff were vaccinated, her husband, her friend who was a first responder, and another friend who was a school nurse were not planning to get the shot.

So does that change your mind about going back there again?

 

[REWahoo]

No, he doesn't work at the restaurant so it isn't an issue for me.

 

[audreyh1]

That's really disturbing. I work in urgent care and I personally know a couple of coworkers who came down with COVID despite being fully vaccinated. We're still at high risk because we're in contact with COVID patients on a daily basis. If anybody is going to get it, it's going to be us.


If we can't even get the healthcare workers to comply with guidelines, we're in bad shape.

It seems like it's really hard for people not to automatically think (feel like?) they are 100% immune.

If the healthcare workers are falling into that trap...... not good.

 

[audreyh1]

DW and I went to a dine-in lunch today at our favorite spot, a Chinese restaurant where we've only been getting take-out for the past 13 months. We had a nice talk with the owner, who said they had delayed opening for indoor dining until two weeks ago to insure everyone on the staff had been vaccinated. Seating is limited to every-other table and all the staff wore masks.

She told us they had already encountered a couple of "unpleasant" customers who insisted on being seated at one of the roped-off tables when all open tables were full. Shouted at the staff, gave a bad review on Yelp!, etc.

I'll never understand the mentality of someone who complains about an eating establishment being too cautious about making one of their customers sick.

EDIT: FWIW, the owner vented to us that while she and her entire restaurant staff were vaccinated, her husband, her friend who was a first responder, and another friend who was a school nurse were not planning to get the shot.

Wow, they've gone out of their way to make it safe for their staff and customers. Too bad there have to be a few obnoxious customers like that. It seems like those folks think they are kings or something.

 

[tmm99]

Sorry to hear this. I hope they only had mild symptoms.

That's really disturbing. I work in urgent care and I personally know a couple of coworkers who came down with COVID despite being fully vaccinated. We're still at high risk because we're in contact with COVID patients on a daily basis. If anybody is going to get it, it's going to be us.


If we can't even get the healthcare workers to comply with guidelines, we're in bad shape.

 

[Toddtheformeraccountant]

It seems like it's really hard for people not to automatically think (feel like?) they are 100% immune.

If the healthcare workers are falling into that trap...... not good.

I'm sorry, I have to give an alternate opinion.

Once you get the vaccine and it has taken effect, you are about 90% immune, and virtually zero risk of being hospitalized for COVID.

That puts it in flu risk territory (or less), which we haven't gone crazy about and kept out lives shut down for the flu since 1918.

We have shut down our economy and lives for FAR too long, with an overly risk adverse public policy approach to COVID. Now, people are saying, well, now we have the vaccine...that's still not enough to move on. Well, if the vaccine isn't enough, we're NEVER going to reopen. That's not acceptable.

That's enough risk mitigation to move on and get on with my life.

I just think it's a counterproductive message if you tell people, hey, get the vaccine, it's great, but by the way you're going to have to continue to mask, distance, etc.

If you're a medical worker working with COVID patients, by all means, you should continue to utilize infection control, you should do that COVID or otherwise.

If you are still concerned about COVID and afraid to go about your life, that's your business. As long as you don't expect me to continue staying in my bunker to ameriorate your (in my opinion, unfounded) fear, I'm good with it.

FTR, I had COVID in December, and I got vaccinated four weeks ago. I'm good, I'm done.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Ready]

I’ve been to three restaurants in the past week now. We went to the Cheesecake Factory to get together with some friends. Every other seat was empty and it was not particularly busy. The food and service was great. I have a new favorite there - Shepherd’s Pie. I don’t think I’ve ever tried shepherd’s pie in my entire life but OMG it was good.

Then we went to a small Thai restaurant. There were only two other people eating indoors. Food was excellent and the service was great. We wore masks while ordering and interacting with the wait staff out of courtesy.

For our anniversary we drove down to San Diego to visit the Air and Space Museum. It was not at all crowded. We wore masks while indoors but it was very comfortable being in there.

While down there we stopped at the Hash House A Go Go, a local favorite for us in the San Diego area. Unfortunately it just wasn’t good. They only had one vegan dish for DH - a portobello mushroom burger. We asked them to make it without cheese but they forgot and served a big heaping pile of goat cheese on it. I ordered the meatloaf hash. The potatoes were raw and the dish was just awful. But it’s just part of the restaurant experience. Occasionally you are going to get a bad meal.

I am noticing that many restaurants are not quite serving their full menu yet. With the restaurants operating at 50% capacity I don’t think they want to prepare all the ingredients necessary to create every dish that was on the menu pre-Covid. Eventually I think they will get there. There are still a few favorite dishes that I can’t order at my regular restaurants.

 

[disneysteve]

Sorry to hear this. I hope they only had mild symptoms.

My one friend had a very mild case, mainly just a headache and some fatigue. It still meant missing 10 days of work, though. And she passed it on to her unvaccinated wife who got a more significant (but not overly serious) case, and also missed 10 days of work. Since they are both hourly employees, it also had a big financial impact for them. That's an aspect that people don't often think about.

 

[tmm99]

My one friend had a very mild case, mainly just a headache and some fatigue. It still meant missing 10 days of work, though. And she passed it on to her unvaccinated wife who got a more significant (but not overly serious) case, and also missed 10 days of work. Since they are both hourly employees, it also had a big financial impact for them. That's an aspect that people don't often think about.

So true. Whether we're vaccinated or not, we have responsibilities for the people around us. We must all be aware of this possible snowballing effect.

 

[Ready]

We seem to thread drift easily in this forum and eventually threads get closed because they become too political. Could we just keep this thread to your experiences with dining in restaurants so we don’t invite the mods to shut it down. Thank you.

 

[tmm99]

No dining out so far indoors or outdoors since March of last year. I will only consider indoor dining once our numbers come down. We're running out of ICU beds as well as doctors/nurses, so it's just not the right time even if I was fully vaccinated (which I'm not.)

We have been doing more pickups and deliveries in recent months, however, to try to satisfy the restaurant food cravings. I still don't order anything raw though (salads, etc) - I feel safer with cooked/re-heatable dishes.

 

[MarieIG]

My one friend had a very mild case, mainly just a headache and some fatigue. It still meant missing 10 days of work, though. And she passed it on to her unvaccinated wife who got a more significant (but not overly serious) case, and also missed 10 days of work. Since they are both hourly employees, it also had a big financial impact for them. That's an aspect that people don't often think about.

From my point of view, what is relevant here is the information that a vaccinated person passed along the virus to an unvaccinated (spouse) person - who got a more significant case that the first.

As far as persons not being aware of financial impacts from Covid - maybe you have just been fortunate? I know a quite a few who have been impacted such as a number of my co-workers,. . . My office just rehired another one, after a furlough of over a year; others are still laid off; and others still have salary cuts. Three weeks ago DS was quarantined for a week - again. Good friend just got a low paying job after being out of work for a year.

 

[disneysteve]

As far as persons not being aware of financial impacts from Covid - maybe you have just been fortunate?

Sorry if I didn't express that clearly. Certainly everyone is aware of the big picture impact of the pandemic - businesses closed, jobs lost, etc. I was just talking about the individual impact of having even a very mild case of COVID. For many people, 10 days out of work is a big deal. And having both partners out for 10 days, especially at the same time, even more so.

 

[MarieIG]

Sorry if I didn't express that clearly. Certainly everyone is aware of the big picture impact of the pandemic - businesses closed, jobs lost, etc. I was just talking about the individual impact of having even a very mild case of COVID. For many people, 10 days out of work is a big deal. And having both partners out for 10 days, especially at the same time, even more so.

Yes, it is.

 

[Toddtheformeraccountant]

Sorry if I didn't express that clearly. Certainly everyone is aware of the big picture impact of the pandemic - businesses closed, jobs lost, etc. I was just talking about the individual impact of having even a very mild case of COVID. For many people, 10 days out of work is a big deal. And having both partners out for 10 days, especially at the same time, even more so.

Yep, very true. And many many more have been out of work, out of school, and otherwise negatively impacted for even longer periods of time not because of illness, but due to shutdowns that may not be medically and economically justified. A shame all around.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I have noticed the same thing here in Chapel Hill especially among the students. Back in the winter all the students wore masks, now I am seeing more and more without masks. Last night there was a large party at the sorority across the street .

I came across several families, Parents in the 40's walking around downtown (not dining) and none was wearing a mask. Even the homeless people walking around were masked up.