Wrap It Up: The Restaurant Industry (And My Mental State) Is Plummeting
It’s 7:05 p.m. on Monday night.
I’ve been awake for 14 hours.
This is what every Monday looks like for me.
I generally get up around 5:00 a.m., regardless of my Sunday night bedtime and whether or not I’ve had Coronavirus nightmares.
And then I spend the rest of my day with stress and anxiety.
You see, Mondays are the absolute worst days for me — they’re simply a reminder that I have another week of job searching and hustling for freelance work on the docket, and it’s absolutely brutal.
Brutal.
I’ve been unemployed for 10 months now, which is enough time to really ball-kick your self-esteem.
And the ball-kicking is further fueled by the fact that I am fully qualified for positions I’ve applied for, some of which I’ve had interviews for.
The truth of the matter is, I’m in a niche industry. I write about food, chefs, restaurants, winemakers, and everything in between.
Which brings me to my next topic…
On Sunday, Governor Newsom shuttered outdoor dining in San Francisco — a swift blow to both the local industry and beyond. Whose to say that this won’t happen again in New York City or elsewhere? (We’re on track to see indoor dining shutdown on Monday, in case you were wondering.)
Seen in the East Village.
Winter temperatures are alive and well here in New York. Over the weekend, CLO and I dined outdoors in the East Village at Noreetuh, which also meant that we were wearing multiple (upon multiple) layers of clothing and were surrounded by heat lamps. One of us even broke out hand warmers mid-meal, and we drank several glasses of wine to keep in warm, as you do.
But this has been a constant conversation and my state of concern for the past few weeks — what precisely does dining outdoors in New York City (or anywhere in the Northeast or Midwest, or anywhere that is enduring cold temps) entail during the winter months?
“Pivot” is practically a 2020 colloquialism at this point, and we’ve watched restaurants change their own landscape from summer to winter months. I’ve seen “ritzy” construction go up across my neighborhood. It’s dining outdoors, but actually dining indoors, but outdoors, if that makes sense.
Sheds are abound in Manhattan and beyond, and the locals are digging it, albeit judging each setup from one to the next. I know this as I’m one of those people, taking note of not only the table spacing, but also the space heaters, the décor, the structure of the shed, whether or not there is plexiglass, and the air circulation. (Read: whether or not it’s actually different from indoor dining.)
So what happens now? What is the state of outdoor dining in these colder climates? What happens if there’s a godforsaken Nor’easter? What happens to those sheds when the snowplows have to clean up the streets? Pivot?
We all have Covid fatigue — fuck, I just spent an hour on the phone with my father crying, unclear of what’s happening in my life and what’s to become of my future. So right now I’m focusing on the immediate future, taking things week by week, and hopefully getting through it as best I can and with sound mind.
And until then, I’m dining outside in layers. After all, chefs are doing everything they can to make their customers feel safe and warm. The time to support restaurants is now.
Number of Miles Run:
14.67. Still coming back from the injury here, but as I had one of my fastest runs of 2020 — and most definitely after my injury — I’ll take it. The aforementioned cold temps kept me moving in the same direction I’ve become accustomed to, running the same route between 79th and 72nd Streets with the bridle path in between. I had big plans of running double digits on Sunday before hitting up Noreetuh brunch with CLO, but the cold and wind from every direction kept me from doing so. (The end result was around five miles and also several rounds of stoppage to catch my breath.)
That said, I have high hopes for this week as my last round of shock therapy this week on my Achilles’. Stay tuned.
What and Where to Eat:
Noreetuh. As previously stated, this was our end destination of choice for the weekend long run that didn’t happen. But as my trip south for the winter looms in the very near future, I’ve been making a list of restaurants I haven’t been to since the pandemic began, all serving up dishes that I simply just cannot recreate at home. And everything was exactly as I remembered it to be at Chung Chow’s modern Hawaiian eatery in the East Village; we split mushroom and tuna musubi, caramelized Brussels sprouts with furikake and chipotle mayo, green bean kimchi, and two hefty portions of chow noodles with spiced tofu and Szechuan chiles. (For those wondering whether it is in fact safe to split food orders during a pandemic, it can be done, and CLO and I have become aces at it.)
Rezdôra. I’ve never been to Rezdôra. (Even though I wrote about it when it opened in the spring of 2019.) Fate would right those wrong-doings during an impromptu coffee date with Ali, who suggested we, along with Hutch, make a grand mid-week lunch date. If there’s one thing this winter outdoor dining season needs more of, it’s bowls of handmade pasta and warm cocktails. (Or if your Hutch and myself, cold cocktails which consisted of bourbon and whiskey, and thus surprised no one.)
What to Make:
As I finally finished my Thanksgiving leftovers on Thursday, I didn’t do much in the way of cooking last week. But I did revisit Bon Appétit’s tried and true Eggplant Parm recipe on Friday, and it was just as good as the previous two times I made it during the pandemic. (And the leftovers are even better.)
What to Read:
I’m Afraid It’s Too Late to Save Restaurants by Chef Edward Lee
”It’s the fluctuations that really hurt us. We rely on patterns and predictability for inventory, for staffing, for everything. Now we don’t have a clue.”
That’s a wrap. See y’all in Carolina.