Yeah, I don't know how much the pandemic has played a role as much as higher min. wage in areas. Back in my other home (Portland, OR) a lot of places have gone to having guests order at the counter rather than having servers come to tables. Maui Brewing is setup that way. If it's done right it can be okay but waiting in line for 10+ minutes every time you want something gets old in a hurry (unfortunately, that was the case at Maui Brewing last time I was there).

In some cases, you would wait 10 minutes for the server to come to your table when you wanted to order something. :D

I was at a restaurant recently where we ordered an appetizer, which was delivered quickly, but by someone other than our server, and we waited another half hour to order entrees, simply because our server just disappeared for much of that time. The manager was told of that and measures were taken, but still.

I was watching an interview on the news today with the owner of an ice cream parlor in Pittsburgh. He raised his minimum wage to $15/hr and he stated that it actually helped his business. He received a very large number of applications and was able to hire more competent staff, which reduced training time and resulted in fewer order mistakes and less wastage. He claims that his profit has increased. He, also, has owners of other small businesses calling for advice.

Definitely a fair point but I'd rather spend the 10 minutes sitting at a table with people I came to hang out with rather than standing in line with strangers. In a past life I spent 15+ years in the restaurant biz and know it well. The new minimum wage and scheduling laws have made it nearly impossible to succeed in some areas. This makes labor/staffing even more critical and many managers cut staff which results in the kind of scenario you outline.

I like the idea of tablets, etc. but understand some people might be turned off. The whole concept of servers has always been a bit off IMO. Guests have just never had to think/plan ahead at all. People (like my wife as a great example) will run the server 3X for separate things just because she can't be bothered to think ahead 5 minutes. For some reason when we eat dinner she manages to bring the ketchup AND hot sauce AND extra napkins to the table in one trip :) I always tell her I never want to touch what the server brings on the third trip since it's probably been on the floor (or somewhere worse :))

Nightmare scenario for restaurant owners, I wager. Competitor (direct or indirect) raises offered wages so all the good employees leave. Have to raise wages offered to win some back (or recruit new, good employees), competitors raise wages in response.

I had a text from my son in Eugene this evening. He and his wife were dining out for only the second time in over a year. No server shortage at that particular restaurant. Quick service, adequate attention, meal at the table in 15 minutes after an order was placed. He thinks they were operating at 50% capacity but there was no wait for a table. I wonder if it’s less a factor in college towns where students need to make money all summer to carry them through the school year. Of course I have no idea what wage the restaurant was paying in addition to tips.

Every time I hear stories like this I'm amazed. Even in most of CA, there was only a short period- maybe 3-4 months where you couldn't at least eat outside. Plus there were always a few restaurants and bars who refused to comply. We got out plenty except for that 3-4 month period. Many other states were much more lenient.

Same in IL. IIRC, the first couple months were takeout only. Then at least outdoor dining. Limited indoor opened last summer, and then back to zero in October, at which point many restaurants just stayed open. In fact, some whole towns just resisted. I think people not eating at restaurants has more to do with them choosing not to than restaurants not being open. I know for certain we have some neighbors who haven't been to a restaurant (indoors or out) in 15 months and even after being vaccinated are afraid to go. Everyone has their own risk tolerance level I suppose.

I think it was a matter of them being comfortable. They received their second vaccinations 1-2 months ago. It’s also possible Oregon clamped down a little tighter than elsewhere. Certainly more so than here in Florida.

I ate at a restaurant the other day for probably only the second time over this period myself. For me, the idea of "outside" dining, where they're putting up tents and bubbles and things was just laughable anyways. And quite frankly, it gets cold here. And then it gets hot here. I like inside dining myself most of the time. I can't find the timeline easily, but we've had several periods where indoor dining was flat out banned, and for most of the rest of the time it was pretty severely restricted - and at most 25% of capacity. Heck, it was 50% up until yesterday.

For me though, the real reason I wasn't eating at restaurants really wasn't concerns over getting sick. I've always kinda felt that when you look at the actual numbers of cases in places around here, your odds of exposure even at our highest times were pretty insignificant. But to me, the idea of paying money to go somewhere to eat and put up the theater of nonsense that the various masking rules in restaurants has been just wasn't something that I had any interest in doing. And at times here, it was getting kinda crazy. So I just didn't go. And generally didn't do a lot of takeout from restaurants that I'd normally have eaten at, simply because I don't feel that the food tends to travel well enough for me to get it home and eat it.

As a result for me, I did a lot of eating from home. I've also done more fast good restaurants than I'd prefer. But as someone that did a lot of eating at restaurants, one side benefit to me ended up being that we've been able to spend this time period actually working on cutting down our debt to a much more acceptable level. The cost cuts because of the inability to really go out and do much have been something that while I have no interest in going through this type of situation again, at least in our situation we've been lucky enough to take advantage of to help improve that debt situation. Although it also means that while I'm more likely to go to restaurants a little more now that the situation is easier, I'll probably still be holding off some on that, because we still have a couple months to go to reach our zero debt (besides car and house) goal.

I think the fact that the risk tolerance level is so low for so many is what amazes me the most.

I remember reading here or somewhere else sometime since the "great recession" that it used to be people in the U.S. rarely if ever ate out unless they were on the higher echelons of the economic strata. Then came the chain restaurants that made dining out (relatively more) "affordable" for those on the lower end. The great recession wiped out a lot of these chains when people went back to home cooking to save/cut down debt. One wonders if the same (great wipeout) will happen again. I don't/have ever patronised these places so don't know if they've disappeared or not.

Before the COVID shutdown, my wife and I rarely (5x a year at most) ever ate out (including fast food, not due to not having money, but finding very poor value where we are than what we were used to). We've been tracking our budget and expenditures on everything spent for over half a decade. Food (basics, we pretty much make everything from basics) expenditure is USD 16 per day on which we (2 of us) eat very, very well.

I find both ends of the spectrum kind of amazing actually. But I'm a common sense person who believes that we take risks every day, just by getting out of bed. I don't walk down dark alleys in Chicago. But I'm not wearing rubber gloves and a mask to drive my car either.

I've heard a similar story, but not tied to the Great Recession, which was in 2008. The whole restaurant craze and celebrity chef thing was going strong before that. In any case, you bring up an interesting point. The higher end restaurants should survive, and of course they usually pay much better too. And I suspect fast food will adapt, as we've discussed here. It's those mid-range chains that are worth watching.

The flip side of that is people have more disposable income now, according to several studies. People have figured out what I've lived for over 15 years now - that working from home saves you a LOT of money. And others received government subsidies. My mom, in her 70's and with a monthly retirement income that she's forced to take but can't possibly spend, has twice donated the COVID stimulus checks she's received. So will they spend it in restaurants or realize, as you've found, that we can make a lot of things better at home?

There was plenty of time that restaurants were physically open (legally or not), but sane people chose not to go.

Lots of sane people went. I'd guess most people who went were legally sane. If you chose not to go, that's fine. But there's really no reason to judge others, name-call, or question their mental fitness simply because they made a perfectly reasonable choice that you happen to disagree with.