RI Governor Gina Raimondo the other day issued new guidance allowing restaurants to open outdoor dinning areas only to accompany takeout if they are doing takeout already. Below are the requirements: Starting Monday, May 18th, restaurants will be able to begin limited outdoor dining in addition to their take-out, delivery, and drive-through operations. Restaurants will be required to operate under the following new regulations, among others: Dining will be by reservation only and groups may not exceed five people, in accordance with guidance on social gathering. Tables must be at least eight feet apart or separated by barriers, and no more than 20 tables will be allowed in any outdoor space. One-time-use paper menus, digital menus, or chalkboard menus will be recommended. Condiments and utensils will either be single-use or sanitized between uses. All high-traffic areas will have to be frequently cleaned. Tables and chairs will be sanitized in between parties. All employees must wear face coverings, and all customers must wear face coverings when they are not eating. Self-service food stations like buffets and salad bars will be prohibited. Cashless and contactless payment methods will be encouraged. Pens and payment stations will be frequently cleaned. For now, no valet services will be allowed. Customers will be asked to park their own cars. First let me tell you that if restaurants want to open now, they better buy a bunch of those heaters I've seen in California. April and May have been downright cold. Not eating outside weather. Maybe if you are lucky in the middle of the day on a Saturday, you might get an hour or two where the wind is not too bad to allow you to sit outside. Knowing the restaurants around us with outdoor dining, there are maybe three places that I can think of that could accomplish this with the 8' apart. Otherwise, restaurants will be constructing plexiglass barriers to divide the tables. Only one restaurant that I know of has the propane heaters to actually make this work. The rest of them will have to scramble to find enough heaters to make it work. In most cases, their outdoor dining areas are too small to even make the cost worthwhile. The craziness continues. Jason from RI.
Here in Mass, we'll be hearing about phased openings, come Monday. There's been no leaks as to what/how places will open. There is a drive-in restaurant just down the street from us. it's been open all along. Perhaps, some of the RI restaurants can offer a drive-in-like experience. Basically, takeout, but eat in car. We're hoping to take a ride down to Cape Cod and do some takeout at an oceanside restaurant. Maybe get a few fishing casts in the water, as well.
We've doing takeout to support the local restaurants that we frequent. I want to make sure they stay in business. Jason from RI
My step daughter lives in RI and has worked in the restaurant business her whole life...server, bartender, kitchen. Some opening is better than none. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
For me I believe it’s over cautious. They could apply similar rules to inside dining and allow them to open their dinning rooms. Some restaurants were already setup for takeout and made the transition seamless, but that was at heavy burden on the restaurants bottom line. They are only able to serve a fraction of takeout orders. Many simply closed the doors as their staff would make more money collecting unemployment with the $600 added amount each week. Tonight at dinner we were talking about the growing list of restaurants that have already decided to close down permanently. Next we’ll be taking about small businesses that will not reopen. They are the backbone to our economy. Where I live in R.I., the community relies heavily on the summer tourism. God only knows how much tourism there will be this summer. I know we cancelled our plans to go to NH to stay on Lake Winnipesaukee. For those of us fortunate to be working, please pray and do what you can for your family and fellow neighbors. Jason from R.I. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last night my wife and I went out to dinner at Matunuck Ouster Bar. It’s a 5 minute ride from the house. The owner has three oyster farms and two vegetable farms he uses for the restaurant. It’s the only restaurant in our town, South Kingstown, and the town next to us, Narragansett, that has the outdoor area to pull off outdoor eating. Perry the owner also has the propane gas towers for heating that also make it doable. My wife and had a nice night out by ourselves for the first time in well over 10 months or more. Though I still believe it’s ridiculous that they can’t do the same configuration inside without any threat to exposure. Each table is reserved for 75 minutes. We finished and left by 45 minutes. Call it 10 minutes to thoroughly wash it down, that table of 4 sat idle for 20 minutes. Now I tell you that because I felt obligated to tip higher knowing she’s going to get about 2/3’s of the tables she would normally see in an average night there. Maybe even half. This place is busy from 4pm until 9-9:30pm. I gave the waitress 30%. Now I am not looking to hear I’m a jackwagon. I’d would like to hear what others would do for a tip under these circumstances. Jason from RI Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
