February 24, 2020.
A group of us meet to have dinner in celebration of Shari's birthday. I had no idea at the time that this would be my last dinner out, in NYC, for a very long time.
Tonight, 13 months later, I meet a couple of friends for dinner at a real restaurant. It's going to be a mini-birthday celebration. I feel as excited as Jimmy Fallon was last night, when he performed for the first time in over a year in front of a small, live audience.
My friends choose Quality Bistro because they know I love steak. They even do some fact-finding before we meet to insure that the outdoor dining set-up, and the restaurant overall, meet our unspoken criteria for staying safe. We are all vaccinated, but still uber cautious.
Not only is this my first time out in forever, it's the first time I've worn shoes (ankle boots) other than sneakers in a very long time too. Or makeup. Or a non-T-shirt or sweatshirt.
I am the first to arrive and am so impressed. I hope these kind of individualized structures are still up when COVID is something we are remembering and not still living.
Each sitting area feels like being in a private room of a nice restaurant.
The weather complies. No coats are needed. And the heaters hidden under the benches we are sitting on keep us pleasantly warm. The food (snails and steak frites), the drinks, the service, the dessert, the company... all of it. Just perfect.
Even with vaccinations, I'm definitely in favor of moving forward cautiously, and would find it very difficult to jump right back to the way things were pre-COVID, as some people have done in some states. The outdoor sitting areas at that restaurant looked great. I do hope it is something that restaurants will keep in place even when the pandemic fades to a memory.
ReplyDeleteI agree with still hoping that restaurants keep their outdoor dining option available even when COVID has faded from memory.
ReplyDeleteWill we ever really go back to the old normal?
In answer to Gary, I am having a hard time imagining going back to the old "carefree" normal. After 13 months and counting of so, so many precautions, I can't imagine just throwing that "caution to the wind"!
ReplyDeleteBut after the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, things did go back to normal full force.
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