Dining Out!

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Yes! We went out to eat! Legally! In our own county! It was a heady experience, one that we thoroughly enjoyed. I was surprised that everything was nearly normal. We had a real menu to hold, and the table was not bare. We could reach for sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup, and sweeteners. The glaring difference was that half the tables had a taped “X” on them. The last time we ate there on a Sunday, all the tables were full. There was a steady stream of customers today, taking up most of the unmarked tables. We noticed there were people coming for take-out meals. With that added traffic, the restaurant might have been doing as much business as before COVID-19. Not all restaurants will be able to bounce back like that. As you can imagine, we were happy to help.

You can guess what I did. I took out the camera to record this historic moment. Look at those happy smiles and the huge bowl of salad in front of John. David’s fish did not swim into view, but it was shortly inside him.

We ate leisurely, since no one was waiting for our table. David had half an hour back at home before he had to go to work. He knows the Burger King dining room will be opening, but he hasn’t been told when. They will need a few more workers when that happens.

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

52 thoughts on “Dining Out!”

  4. Oh you’re in trouble now for making me hungry. No way are our restaurants opening yet, I’m not sure about England so I’ll have to keep dreaming about my roast beef dinner.
    Massive Hugs

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  5. I’m beginning to forget what it’s like, to dine out. I’m happy that you now have the chance. Michelle and I are waiting to see the numbers start down. Which may never occur. We have had an uptick of 32% from last week, in our county.

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  6. Our restaurants are open in the northern part of the state, but not here except for carryout. We have a high death/cases toll though, but we are still at stay-an-home-as-it’s-safer order until June 12th.

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  9. We ate in our area on Sunday after online church at home. We just hopped in the car and drove around looking for dine-in places. The parking lot at Baybreeze had lots of cars but all their flags out still said to go takeout available but no one was a the door. We started to leave because I wanted to support a dine-in place and decided to call. Yes, they had dine in. I saw no customers with mask. Condiments were not on the table and menus were trashed after use so they asked us to share. I’m pretty sure everyone in the part we were in, was older than us. I told the waitress about not knowing for sure they were back open and I heard others in the room agreeing. All the staff had masks on. It’s kinda hit or miss. Some restaurants had lines out the door. I think it’s painting a pretty clear picture of how folks feel about the restrictions. I don’t want a “new normal”.

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  10. We only eat out once every few months, but I know others really miss it. Unfortunately, we have had a big spike in cases over the last two weeks, mostly in our Native community, but now it has hit the Safe House, public transport drivers and a local downtown restaurant, so I’m not sure what that means for us. We are at 150 cases now, and on May 3 we were still at 17. 😔

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      1. It’s concerning for sure. I spoke to a new piano parent this evening, who is a Dr. at the hospital, and she said the outbreak was pretty confined, but that we need to be very conscientious about hand washing these next few weeks.

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  14. I hope that your little corner of the country can stay as low in infections as it has. Here, as you know, we have been massively hit and even outdoor restaurants just opened with very stringent conditions.

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                    1. I’m not sure outsiders have significantly increased the virus cases in our county. According to a local paper, 60 percent of ours are in nursing homes.

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  15. How wonderful! Our region of the state (Pennsylvania) is opening on June 5 but even then, we can’t go out to a restaurant. Take out only for the foreseeable future.

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  17. Ooh, I’m envious! Don’t know when we’ll have the same freedom back again. I’m surprised you didn’t experience a long lineup!

    I love going out for brunch, that’s what I want to do ASAP!

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