![]() ![]() Local produce wholesalers shoulder a 90% drop in sales in the first weeks of the shutdown. Farmers markets implement strict distancing practices. ![]() Food-related businesses rush to contend with the new reality. Most independent restaurants typically operate on razor-thin margins and chefs across the city denounce the decision, particularly given the lack of any discernible financial support from the government. Restaurants are allowed to operate for pickup and delivery. Later that night, however, Mayor Garcetti orders Los Angeles bars to close and forces restaurants to cease dine-in service, effective at midnight and (initially) through the end of the month. Gavin Newson says he believes restaurants should remain open as long as customers practice “deep social distancing” when dining out, while urging (without mandating) that bars, nightclubs, wineries and breweries across the state shut down in the name of public safety. At a March 12 press conference, Mayor Garcetti suggests that worried diners consider ordering takeout to support restaurants. Some chefs preemptively devise takeout alternatives. Concerns around COVID-19 accelerate and restaurants across Los Angeles begin to experience reservation cancellations and emptying dining rooms. Sichuan Impression is among the first restaurants to start taking customers’ temperatures as they sit down to dine, a practice that will become standard during the pandemic. Chinese people and anyone who could be mistaken for Chinese are being treated like potential carriers of disease.” Anti-Asian hate crimes spike will spike alarmingly over the course of the year. 3: “People are openly wondering if it’s safe to eat at Chinese restaurants, as if a virus could be transmitted through flavors. Times columnist Frank Shyong writes on Feb. The drop in business comes amid rising incidents of anti-Asian bias and misinformation. Almost immediately, fears around the outbreak cause steep, tangible declines in the restaurant business in established Asian communities such as Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley. 26, Los Angeles and Orange counties record their first cases brought back by travelers who have recently been in Wuhan, China. Health officials report the first novel coronavirus case in the United States (in Washington State) on Jan. It’s even harder to fathom the layers of tribulation that restaurant owners and their staffs have been through, starting with the painful time-loop pattern of shutdowns, punctuated by whiplash decisions from various government agencies that left heads spinning.Īs it became clear that the pandemic could stretch out indefinitely and that vaccines wouldn’t become available before the year’s end, questions with no static answers emerged: What are the best ways to protect restaurant workers? How do customers best support restaurants when the government fails to provide a financial safety net? Is ordering takeout enough? Do we buoy restaurants through merchandise, or online fundraising campaigns, or gift certificates? Is it enough to donate to restaurants partnering with nonprofits that are helping to feed medical workers? It’s hard for our minds to hold everything that’s happened in the last year. What happened in between those X-marks on the calendar is … a lot. The reopening came one day shy of the anniversary date - Mawhen Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered restaurants to discontinue dine-in service to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. ![]() Beginning March 14, restaurants in Los Angeles County opened their dining rooms (at partial capacity) after being barred from serving indoors for most of the past 12 months. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |