Previously on This Just In…Culinary no-no #653 linked to articles about the latest gloom and doom surrounding the beleaguered restaurant business.
The update(s):
Restaurants take to the streets to create socially distanced dining rooms as nation reopens
But can sidewalk tables and parking-lot patios provide enough revenue?
Today’s read is from Jerry Waldrop who has been pastor of the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs in Mississippi for 31 years. Here’s a brief excerpt followed by the entire column.
On Easter Sunday, police officers with the city of Holly Springs interrupted our service and issued me a citation for violating an unconstitutional stay at home order. Ten days later, our peaceful Bible study was shut down although we were following all social distancing guidelines. But the nightmare wasn’t over. Last Wednesday, someone burned down our church, leaving only a smoldering mass of debris and our dreams. They left graffiti, trying to shame us for worshiping together in our church.
Read the pastor’s column here.
Today’s read is from a great writer, author, and analyst, Heather McDonald. Here’s an excerpt before a link to the entire column:
Fear is gripping the American public health and media establishments: they are losing control. States are belatedly (and far too tentatively) easing their coronavirus lockdowns, many without having met the absurd CDC benchmarks for doing so. Customers are joyfully returning to previously shuttered restaurants and parks, some even discarding that symbol of subjugation: the outdoor mask.
The mainstream media and health experts are not going down without a fight, however; their newfound power over almost the entirety of human life has been too exhilarating to give up now. Their reaction to the current rebellion provides a glimpse of the strategies that will be deployed during the much-hyped ‘second wave’ of infections this fall in order to shut the economy down again.
Expect the following additional strategies this summer, besides the creative massaging of good tidings into bad:
To find out more read the entire column here.
THIS WEEKLY BLOG PROMOTES A CULTURE OF LIFE
Don’t miss our closing heartwarming story every week!
ALSO:
Deathbed Apology: Norma McCorvey’s Pro-Life Friends Tell Another Story
The Pro-Life Cause Doesn’t Rest on Jane Roe’s Shoulders
Country singer includes recorded heartbeat of unborn daughter in powerful new song
AND FINALLY, LOVIN’ LIFE…
Chase and Sadie Smith’s love story amid cancer draws worldwide response
Thanks for reading!
Here are my most popular blogs from last week, Sunday – Saturday:
1) Today’s highly interesting read (05/18/20): Why the Lockdown Lost
2) Today’s highly interesting read (05/21/20): The Politics of Fear
3) “This is my deathbed confession”
5) “Snookered” is one way to put it
6) The latest pro-life news (05/18/20)
7) For reopening, Franklin mayor insults some (actually many) residents
8) Friday Night Forgotten Oldie: Woodstock, then and now
9) Your public broadcasting tax dollars at work: What if Hillary told Bill to take a hike?
10) Goodnight everyone, and have a here comes summer weekend!
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
Once again this week we are suspending our usual format to provide important related information about the coronavirus.
Cormeilles-en-Parisis, near Paris
Rome
The restaurant industry is still alive…barely.
This past week the Nation’s Restaurant News posted an article with this headline:
The headline very well might have either read:
The article contains a fair amount of gloom and doom, opening with:
It’s a bustling Saturday night at your local neighborhood restaurant. The dining room is only half full, but you know it’s a busy night because in-house delivery drivers — formerly bussers and dishwashers — are whisking dozens of orders in and out of the store, delivering family meals and wine flights to regulars. While barstools are mostly empty, patrons wait for their tables dutifully six feet apart, most wearing face masks. Someone coughs and customers shift nervously — several even get up and leave.
It’s a restaurant scene experts say is likely to become familiar over the next six months to a year…
That’s the stark reality about restaurants of the future. The Jetsons it ain’t.
For as much as people are clamoring that they’re ready to run screaming into the streets at the thought of reopening, consider this Catch-22:
But restaurants can’t afford to wait.
Also from the reality file: Chef Michael Feker who owns Zesti in Hartland and Americas Continental Eatery in Delafield told the Milwaukee Business Journal “To-go was secondary to the dine-in,” Feker said of pre-pandemic business. “Now, it’s the other way around.”
How long will/could that last?
The clampdown by government has turned municipalities into police states. Restaurants didn’t have to worry because they were closed, except for takeout. Until now. Police in Ohio and God knows where else consider restaurants potential criminals.
Finally, Jennifer Bartolotta of Bartolotta & Associates says radical changes are needed in the restaurant business. Unlike so many analysts Bartolotta sees light at the end of the tunnel. She wrote a column in the Milwaukee Business Journal directly addressing her colleagues:
“I would like to point out that this is your moment as an industry. You have been gifted the golden goose of our lifetime. There’s a short, medium and long game here. As you ponder viability and sustainability, it has to be with a new model where you have coalesced to offer your employees fair compensation, 40-hour work weeks, meaningful benefits, and solutions that offer the entrepreneurial owners better than ‘less than 10% net profit’.”
The column requires subscription. But here are some of her suggestions as she challenges her industry partners:
Please coalesce and build your new model. Consider:
• Joe (Bartolotta, her late husband) was famous for saying his most expensive cost was an empty seat – and that is more true today than it ever has been. See each seat that way by maximizing its potential.
• Train, train and train. Make sure that “the experience” is the best you can offer. It’s true that the best server can make up for the worst food, but the best food can’t make up for even an average server.
• Five-day-a-week operations, requiring only one crew only opening for one service a day, instead of two or three.
• Smaller menus, find your niche and settle in there.
• Look to the theater industry and copy “set” performances/showings. Consider having “performances” at 5 p.m. (and like grocery stores, the earliest seating for vulnerable populations), 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• Go back to “the book” and manage your own reservations.
• Only take paid reservations, or at least a per-person deposit of your check average.
• Offering in-unit diners pre-ordered and pre-paid food “to go” for the services you do and don’t offer (breakfast and lunch as an example) – you’re now in competition with delivery services offering meals and meal kits, and we want to support local.
• Most important — raise your prices. We’ll come because Covid-19 gave us a glimpse into your world. We’re armed with new perspective on what it takes to create the experiences and sustenance you offer. While we won’t likely come as often, when we do, we’ll have a far greater appreciation for you and the much-needed respite you offer.
CULINARY NO-NO BONUSES
Restaurants rebel against delivery apps as cities crack down on fees
A pictorial week-in-review posted every Sunday.
1) President Donald Trump addresses a ceremony honoring veterans ahead of the Memorial Day holiday at the White House in Washington, May 22, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
2) A veteran from AMVETS (America Veterans) who is participating in “Rolling to Remember: Honoring our Nation’s Veterans and POW/MIA” salutes President Donald Trump with a thrust fist as he rolls past the president, watching from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House, during a ceremony honoring veterans ahead of the Memorial Day holiday at the White House in Washington, May 22, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
3) A veteran from AMVETS (America Veterans) who is participating in the “Rolling to Remember: Honoring our Nation’s Veterans and POW/MIA” event rides past as President Donald Trump watches from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House during a ceremony honoring veterans ahead of the Memorial Day holiday at the White House in Washington, May 22, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
4) Actor Robert Hammond Patrick Jr stands with veterans prior to President Donald Trump hosting a ceremony honoring veterans going into the Memorial Day weekend at the White House in Washington, May 22, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
5) Members of the U.S. Army Old Guard place small American flags in front of the headstones of U.S. service members buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, May 21, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner
6) Cub Scout Colten Short, 10, of Arlington, salutes a grave after fixing a flag in front of a headstone ahead of the Memorial Day weekend at West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee, May 19, 2020. Max Gersh/The Commercial Appeal/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS
7) Margot Bloch stands in a line of fake body bags while holding flowers during a funeral procession demonstration for COVID-19 victims, outside of the White House in Washington, May 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters
8) The body of Valnir Mendes da Silva lays on the sidewalk of the Arara favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 17, 2020. When Silva complained that he could not breathe, locals said they called an ambulance for him, but he died before it arrived. His body lay on the sidewalk for 30 hours, according to relatives and neighbors. Although they may never be sure, they suspect the 62-year-old was an uncounted victim of the coronavirus outbreak tearing through Rio’s marginalized communities and stretching public services past their limits. Photo: REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
9) Police officers ask people to keep their distance in front of Les Invalides in Paris on May 21 as France eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Photo: Getty Images
10) People crowd Bournemouth beach on a hot day in Dorset, England, May 20. Photo: Getty Images
11) Residents jump off a bridge while swimming, paddle boarding, and kayaking in Barton Creek in Austin, Texas, on May 20, 2020. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that bars, wine tasting rooms, bowling alleys, skating rinks, bingo halls, aquariums, and equestrian events will be allowed to open on May 22, despite a surge in confirmed coronavirus cases in the state. Photo: Tom Pennington / Getty Images
12) People wait in line to go to the Long Branch beach, as New Jersey beaches reopen ahead of the Memorial Day weekend following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Long Branch, New Jersey. Photo: Reuters
13) Two women sunbathe on a grassy slope at Brooklyn Bridge Park during the coronavirus outbreak, on May 17, 2020, in New York. Photo: Kathy Willens / AP
14) A visitor walks through the miniature theme park Madurodam after its reopening following the coronavirus outbreak in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 18, 2020. Photo: Bart Maat / ANP / AFP / Getty
15) The city’s landmark Eiffel Tower is seen through unmown grass along the Trocadero Fountains on May 20, 2020 in Paris, France. Photo: Alain Jocard / AFP / Getty
16) Kady Heard performs a burlesque routine during a drive-thru theater performance at the Majestic Repertory Theatre in Las Vegas on May 16, 2020. The theater held interactive performances for people in their cars as they sold masks to raise money, while closed during the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: John Locher / AP
17) Dolphins perform during a preparation period at the Aquarium of Genoa, Liguria. The aquarium is set to reopen on May 28 after over two months of being closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: AFP
18) A man wearing a face mask and a cardboard house on his head with text that reads, in Spanish, “stay at home,” walks on the seafront in Montevideo, Uruguay, on May 20, 2020. Photo: Matilde Campodonico / AP
19) Tents are pitched to help slow the spread of the coronavirus at a sanctioned homeless encampment next to San Francisco City Hall on May 19. Photo: Reuters
20) Signs reading “no job, no rent” hang from the windows of an apartment building in Washington DC, on May 20. Photo: AP
21) Coronavirus patients George Gilbert and his wife, Domneva Gilbert, hold hands during a short visit. They are being treated in different areas at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England, where they are both part of the TACTIC-R trial, on May 21. Photo: AP
22) Carolyn Ellis (right) hugs her mother, Susan Watts, using the “hug glove” that Carolyn and her husband, Andrew, created as a Mother’s Day gift, in Guelph, Canada, on May 16. Photo: Getty Images
23) Varsha Thebo attends her online graduation ceremony in her bedroom at the International Student House where she resides at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC, May 15. Photo: Getty Images
24) George Washington University graduate Catalina Perez receives a paper copy of her diploma from neighbor Paula Lytle at a surprise graduation party in Washington, DC, May 17. Photo: Reuters
25) Ethan Brown, a graduating senior from Buckeye Union High School, celebrates during a drive-thru graduation ceremony on the race track at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, May 16. Photo: AP
26) A child delivers candy to graduating seniors during a Class of 2020 parade in Wantagh, New York, May 15. Photo: Getty Images
27) A picture of a student is seen on a tablet that is placed on a robot during an event called “cyber-graduation” at a school at Taguig in Manila, Philippines. Photo: AP
28) Dexter Griffin, 9, of Foxborough, plants a flag outside of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on May 21, 2020. The Patriots Foundation partnered with the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund to plant 2,552 flags in honor of veterans from Foxborough who have lost their lives defending the country since the Revolutionary War. Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images
29) Ford Executive Chair William Clay Ford Jr. and President Donald Trump tour the Ford Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on May 21. Photo: Getty Images
30) President Donald Trump holds a protective face mask with a presidential seal on it that he said he had been wearing earlier in his tour at the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant that is manufacturing ventilators, masks and other medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
31) A man walks across a washed-out road in Sanford, Michigan, on May 21, after the area saw heavy flooding and damage from heavy rains. Photo: Getty Images
32) A woman uses a kayak to examine the damage at homes in her neighborhood on Oakridge Road on Wixom Lake in Beaverton, Michigan. Quickly rising water has overtaken dams and forced the about 10,000 people from their homes in central Michigan. Photo: Midland Daily News
33) Rose-ringed parakeets in a forest in Kathmandu. Nepal is a favored breeding destination for the migratory birds. More than 900 bird species have been spotted in the country. Photograph: Narendra Shrestha/EPA
34) A Eurasian hoopoe captured in flight while feeding its chicks at the entrance of their nest in a hole in a tree, in Gyeonggi province, South Korea. Photograph: Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA
35) A man sits with a pelican in St James’s Park, London, Britain. Photo: REUTERS/John Sibley
AND FINALLY,
Scenes from opening night of drive-in theater at Ballpark Commons here in Franklin
Never disappointing.
Adorable deplorables seen the past week.
AND FINALLY…
Why such a tiny banner?
Why is it tucked in the back of the house, essentially hidden?
Madison, WI.
