Good bye parking,
hello dining.
In Manhattan Beach
today, I saw how street parking was
replaced with outdoor seating. Wooden stands were constructed ten
feet into the street, covered with black cloth, and low plastic walls enclosed
the dining space.
Between the spaced tables were plastic partitions. Servers
wearing masks and face shields served customers. The local ice cream shop
had their own street-level outdoor dining area with a pink picket fence separating
traffic from their cute white chairs.
Manhattan Beach is
serious about the coronavirus and helping its businesses while keeping
consumers safe. Driving into Manhattan Beach, a large road construction
sign said, "Face masks required, fine $350." I must say 99% of the people on the
street and boardwalk wore masks. The exception was the
people eating outside. You can't eat with a mask on. So there is that small risks, something could
go wrong.
But, I must say that
eating on the patio of a restaurant in Oregon on our recent road trip was a
great experience. To sit down and have someone bring us dinner and take care of our dishes for the first time in four months felt odd at first and then energizing.
My mother told me
that the Glendale Galleria, an enormous indoor mall, has converted part of its
parking structure into an outdoor eating area.
In South Pasadena,
Mama's Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta put up an enormous white pop-up in it's parking lot, put out a statue of liberty, and laid out tables with red table cloths for to customer's outdoor dining experience.
Fiore Market Cafe also in South Pasadena had a small three-piece instrumental band play on its socially-distanced patio for lunch the other day.
I am glad to see
more and more business adapting to the new "normal" and overcoming
the challenges to stay in business.
I was speaking to my
barber last week whose store placed a pop-up tent in their
parking lot and moved three barber chairs outside and we agreed that the worst
is past us - the unknown. Now, everyone knows about the virus; it will not wipe
out the earth's population; people and business have dealt with and adapted to
living in the coronavirus environment
for over 5 months; and life has entered a new state of normal.
It is still scary
and I bid you to take care of yourselves and be safe, but determine how you can
make the best of your situation rather than waiting for something to happen.
Posts Tuesday and
Saturday
