Restaurants Across the Country Struggle to Respond to Coronavirus

Dining out is not essential. Neither is take out or delivery of individual meals. People need to learn better priorities and understand that having someone else cook and serve your meal is a luxury not a basic need. Buy groceries and prepare your own meals or at least purchase meals to re-heat in bulk vs eating out every individual meal. This virus epidemic is bad, however, it should teach several lessons - the importance of personal space/not overcrowding, better sanitation, and learning not to rely on restaurants for every meal.

Writers please do the responsible thing right now and tell everyone that the important thing right now is to limit all contact with other people. We have to stop transmission of the virus right now. Don't go out for anything non-essential. The Times can help promote that message as many people still haven't heeded it. Thank you and we can all work together and stay apart for the time being!

Fast Food places like McDonalds, Chipotle and Chick-fil-A are certainly trying to deal with it: https://www.eatdrinkdeals.com/restaurants-procedures-to-address-coronavirus-concerns/

In the caption of the photo at the head of this article: "germophobia". Should it not rather be "germotimor"? I thought that "phobia" meant dislike or hatred, whereas "timor" was one of the Latin nouns for fear.

Some fast food places in my town are having everybody go through the car lane, even without a car! So we occasionally go BEEP BEEP! Mickey D's, contrary to popular opinion has a really big cup of good coffee for a dollar, but they gave it out to me free. I like being older than god. I knew her when she was in diapers. Thank you, McDonald's!

Restaurants, hospitality, and travel are industries that will be taking it on the chin during the early days of the pandemic. They are canaries in the veritable coal mine, warning us about the potential economic devastation coronavirus represents to so many business sectors.

I’m one of the employees that work at one of Daniel Bouluds restaurant and this experience is causing so much anxiety and panic to I can probably say everyone that work in the service industry. Even though we get sick pay for 2 weeks because we work in NYC, as tipped workers we only get $10 per hour, that means we get only about $300 after taxes for 40 hr week without tips. That’s barely enough to buy food and other essentials. How are we suppose to pay bills and rent? On top of that those who get insurance through their company LOSES their insurance. WHEN WE NEED IT THE MOST! What do we do for medication that we need that has nothing to do with COVID 19? I have no idea where to call to ask for assistance, the companies literally just cut off the workers with no warning and said good luck, see you after if you’re still alive and want to come back to work.

Suggestion to Manhattan restaurants - turn your waiters temporarily into delivery guys. Offer all your customers, breakfast, lunch and dinner delivered. I know not ideal but at least everyone keeps a job. Just a humble idea.

It saddens me profoundly that I had to cancel a reservation at a restaurant today. I am retired and look forward to the monthly lunch gathering of my retired colleagues--on the second Friday of the month. We enjoy the conversation and, especially, the shared camaraderie of many years of working together. But today the others in the group chose to cancel due to the coronavirus situation. I do understand, since we are of "a certain age" and several of us have immune concerns. But as I called the restaurant to cancel our reservation, I felt such regret that our concerns would affect their bottom line...at a restaurant that has a solid reputation in the community.

I live in a Chinatown, which means watching my neighboring businesses take a huge hit. As was pointed out by our local newspaper's food critic, many of the smaller restaurants operate on razor thin margins, making them especially vulnerable during these unprecedented times (unprecedented in my lifetime, anyway). I've been trying to give them as much of my own business as possible, but it's obviously not enough. I just hope my favorites last through this, although I admit that's a bit selfish.

One thing we can do is go to our favorite restaurants' websites (or call them) and buy gift certificates (for yourself or others) for use later. If enough people do that it would help restaurants with cash flow. I'm thinking doubling my monthly restaurant expenditure for this. (Since I won't be dining out.)

Some readers comment on take-out and delivery. Neither is foolproof. There will always be restaurant patrons willing to live dangerously. A way to attract more customers is to diversify and expand the menu. Even if the eateries serving hamburgers and pizza are excluded, the higher-level esfablishments should put themselves in the shoes of Taillevent and Escoffier, and recall the adage, "Those who dare, win".

For those of us concerned about local restaurants in particular, I hope they develop and promote ways that those who have the means right now can support them and their employees: offering more delivery or carryout, gift certificates, et al.

The restaurants that have a well established delivery platforms and the on line delivery companies are going to sustain themselves. Restaurants are going to limit menu options and will have to reduce staff. To date, no one has stopped eating. Retailers/grocery stores are going to much more active. Mix of products at retail and food service is different. There will be good values for consumers that buy higher end perishables from big box stores, Costco Walmart etc.

Cheer up, restaurateurs! One reads that restaurants in Paris blossomed during the Terror of 1792-94, when the chefs, after loosing their patrons to the guillotine and exile, found that the Jacobins like to eat too.

"Darden Restaurants, which operates chains including the Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, have announced they would offer up to seven paid sick days to hourly workers" Darden Restaurants should announce that they will make this policy permanent.

Those of us in the world who only make money when we provide services (whether restaurants or physicians or hairdressers or therapists or...or...or...) are hard hit by any downturn in business. The idea that everyone has a safety net of a few months income is not only untrue, it's an unrealistic expectation given our lopsided economy. This crisis more starkly illuminates the division between the haves and the have nots, and the advantages one group has over the other. Some of us may easily survive a COVID-19 infection but succumb to the vagaries of income.

I have been a chef for thirty years and this article is very sobering. 9/11 slowed businesses down quite a bit, the 2008 crash cut our restaurant group’s business by 20% for an extended period. Restaurants by nature operate on such thin profit margins, that any drop in business can be an existential threat. I’m just starting a new job and wonder how long it will last. The restaurant business always rebounds at some point, but that’s small comfort at the moment.