I got a text yesterday from a restaurant owner in South Carolina. “How is it in Georgia since everything is open?” And the first thing I thought was “perception and reality are pretty far apart right now.”
Of course, the perception out there is that that Governor Brian Kemp waved his magic wand last Monday and everything went back to normal. You can get a table at The Vault, you can enjoy dining al fresco at Castaways in Sandfly or you can roll up on Olive Garden in Pooler and enjoy unlimited whatever it is that they are offering these days. If that’s how you roll, of course.
The reality is, most restaurants in the heart of Savannah have chosen to remain closed for now. A lot of restaurants in the State of Georgia are also still closed. Gyms are allowed to open, but mine and so many others are still closed. Why? Well, because there very much remains a threat in the area. The sentiment is universal, the science doesn’t support a re-open just yet. It just doesn’t. You can argue that point if you’d like. It seems that’s all anyone is doing anymore these days. Picking a side and then pointing and cussing. I won’t bite.
I took my family to breakfast at Henry’s downtown on Monday morning. It was my daughter’s High School ‘Graduation day’ and I felt the need to try to do something special. The last few weeks for Seniors and their parents have been a challenge, and that’s an understatement. I chose Henry’s because I knew with most of Savannah still shut down, we’d be the only ones there. Sure enough. Table for 5. Pick a spot, any spot. We had the restaurant to ourselves. Fair enough. It was nice to be able to sit somewhere and eat a meal. I won’t deny that. But would I be walking into a dining room that even felt crowded? No, probably not.
Where I do have concern is how this is all going to roll out over the next few weeks. As I write this, I’m getting texts about more restaurants in the middle of a deep clean. Seemingly a prelude to a return. No issues here.
Days in to this ‘re-open’ and the emotional sentiment around town is very quickly turning toward being ‘normal’ again. Whether we are ready or not.
“There was a lot of anxiety early on.” a friend told me about working at Memorial. “Now it feels like it is returning to something more normal.”
Ah yes, that word. Normal. Like an ice cold Mountain Jam on a blazing Summer day, right?
Of course, that doesn’t mean we are ready to sit on the deck at The Grove and suck down one of those 64oz Mules just yet. All of that will take time. Meanwhile, we should still be mindful and cautious wherever we chose to take our dining dollar for a while. Personally, I won’t judge anyone who thinks they need to go sit in a restaurant just to prove that they can. Just so long as you don’t judge me if I don’t. With one, maybe two, exceptions, mine will remain a take-out house for a while yet.
My point is, I feel like, just like that lazy river at the water park we enjoy so much, the momentum is going to begin to build around here and carry more and more people down stream toward a meal on the town. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that as long as we continue to be smart about it and practice proper sanitizing steps. This thing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so be mindful of that. If not for you, then for your neighbors, friends or the little old lady you walk by at Publix. This isn’t going away. The next few steps for us are about management. And we can all do our part.
Of course, the belly laugh as I wrote that last line came from knowing that so many people don’t care. They want what they want when they want it with absolutely zero regard to anyone else. I get it.
The majority of us can be responsible, though, and I believe that we will.
“I need to see numbers going down. I need to see no spike in cases in this area.” Is how one restaurant owner described their next steps to me. Absolutely understandable and only time will offer us that glimpse.
Meanwhile, those of you who cannot wait to get to that bottomless bowl of something called pasta, have at it but just remember that this is nowhere close to ‘over.’
# # #
