For my contacts in the restaurant and bar industry, this past year has been pure hell. It was like getting dealt the cruelest hand in a card game, a trifecta that started with an abrupt pandemic, soon followed by civil unrest that tore our community apart, then ended with shutdowns and enormous economic hardship. A friend who owns a steakhouse described the experience as a “punch in the gut and a new adventure in survival.”
While Main Street businesses suffered, the stock market rebounded and residential real estate boomed. This illogical and counterintuitive twist magnified existing inequities depending on our respective occupations and socioeconomic positions. Go figure.
On the other side of the bar, patrons missed the unique role taverns play in comfort and grieving. Before, when catastrophe struck, we could be together. During natural disasters, troubling events like 9/11, or private struggles such as the death of loved ones, eating and drinking establishments have served as meeting spaces where family, friends and like-minded strangers gathered for collective healing. Restaurants and bars do much more than simply feed and nourish us; they fulfill a human need for connection and shape our social relations.
Congratulations to the restaurants that made it through and for their ability to adapt, recover and discover innovative ways to serve customers. May the rollout of vaccinations and a return to normalcy instill a catch-up mentality and inspire revenge spending by consumers emerging from isolation. Many of us are feeling resentment due to the monotony of eating our own cooking as well as empathy for others sadly drinking alone. Summer is around the corner. It will be safer to venture out, and outdoor dining will skyrocket.
Surviving the past year’s nadir has earned our hospitality friends well-deserved feelings of joy, relief and exuberance.
Cheers,
Frank Roffers, Publisher + Editor-At-Large
