Jose Mier on Eating During COVID
Have you noticed how life in Sun Valley has changed? Every restaurant with a patio or parking lot that has the ability has moved dining outdoors. I guess it’s a sign of the times and one more hoop we have to jump through to have some sort of semblance of our normal pre-coronavirus lives. Restaurants are hurting financially and given the restrictions on indoor dining currently in the State of California this is the only way for restaurants to stay afloat. It’s purely a stopgap measure and I can tell you that restaurants are still struggling but at least we as consumers can still go out to dinner and have an enjoyable time.
I had the opportunity drive through the state for vacation this past summer and near both the hotels I stayed at on my drive to Oregon there were Denny’s restaurants close by. Both restaurants had moved dining to outdoors. It was a little different but we were still able to enjoy our breakfasts. The same is true for our Sun Valley restaurants. If you’ve noticed the ramp on Hollywood way, Hill Street Café, La Bamba on Glenoaks and a host of other restaurants have set up tents to serve their customers outside. The experience for me dining of these restaurants was only a little less comfortable than usual and during the summer months we had to deal with the heat but the trade-off—getting to feel normal by going out to eat—was well worth it.
As we move into November however I think about cooler temperatures and possibly rain are going to mean for these restaurants. We may have to bundle up and be a little more uncomfortable but we need to suck it up and continue to support our Sun Valley restaurants. It has been said the vaccines are on the way in short order and that we’ve learned enough about the coronavirus to treat it more effectively. Just look at President Trump who recovered from his bout with the coronavirus thanks to cocktails of drugs that helped him fight off the virus. Let’s hope we will soon see an end to the virus and be able to dine inside once more. Until then let’s do what we can to keep our Sun Valley restaurants in business.
