Who is ready to go back to them?
The notion of wearing a mask in a restaurant is absurd. You can’t eat with a mask on. This is another area in which the pandemic hasn’t affected me much, because I’ve never liked going out to eat at restaurants, other than for social reasons. It’s both expensive and unhealthy to pay someone else to cook for you, and I don’t like having people serve me.
The wife and I brunched for the second weekend in a row in our favorite pub yesterday. Other than the masked staff and the removal of every other table, everything was normal (well, they didn’t have my usual pulled pork ).
The two outdoor seating areas were almost full, too.
My girlfriend and I have been to 19 different restaurants since early May. I guess we see the world differently than you.
We went to one earlier in the week, but there’s none of that mask nonsense here.
But, yeah, we usually only go out with friends, so not very often even in times when that’s not frowned upon.
Given the quality of the food in some restaurants, I see nothing whatsoever wrong with patrons remaining fully-masked the entire time they are on the premises.
We have been out to eat several times since indoor dining opened back up (restaurant carnitas are better than what I can easily make at home). The waitstaff at the places we’ve been have been pretty diligent about their mask-wearing; the patrons, not so much – you’re supposed to have a mask on anytime you’re not at your table, and we’ve seen plenty of people get up to visit the restroom, get up to leave, etc., without enmasking.
That said, you are correct it’s much easier to eat healthy at home, and what shortages the grocery stores had seem to have abated.
Kat and I have been out three times now, once with my sons for Father’s Day, and once each for our two favorite Italian places. Last Thursday it was Filomena in Georgetown. Aside from a masked waiter, and slightly enhanced partitions around the booths (an improvement, in that they are cozier), it was essentially the same experience. The place is normally packed, and though it got fairly busy as the evening wore on, it certainly wasn’t business as usual.
I didn’t know how much I missed human contact, at the level of interacting with restaurant staff (we generally have a lot of fun with them).
We eat out while traveling as there is no real choice mostly. Otherwise at home. My wife is a great cook.