sweatshorts

Not quite on topic, but related: It looks like The Infatuation has shut down all its cities except New York.

Going to be a lot more of them over the next six months. I was wandering around the chilly, damp West Village at 6 last night and most restaurants' outdoor seating were empty, and only a couple were close to full.

I agree with your last sentence. Anecdotal, but a significant portion of my NY-based friends who weren't previously openly irresponsible spent the weekend attending indoor unmasked parties and posting about it on Instagram.

Sneak, just want to say I agree with everything you said here. And it sucks all around.

Imagine the stranger sitting closest to you, even if it's ten feet away, coughs four times twenty minutes into your meal. Unmasked. Covers his mouth for the last two, but his hand doesn't quite make it to his mouth for the first two. How do you feel? Then he coughs again, twice, ten minutes later. Are you enjoying yourself?

This reminds me, we were walking on 8th Street on our way to Ko, and Mace is doing a pop-up at Existing Conditions with pre-bottled cocktails and very light food -- a pretzel, hot dogs, cheese plate. Had a couple pretty good cocktails, though if they threw in a glass and a big ice cube it would take them from not bad to excellent.

Fair. A $21 glass of wine. Service included was a nice surprise -- it's not listed on the menu that I saw.

I totally get that. It's absolutely not as enjoyable / relaxing as it was in the olden days.

I have so far done outdoor dining at a few places, which are either what is effectively fast-casual counter service with disposable plates, utensils, and drinkware, and sit-down service at varying degrees of pre-pandemic levels. Counter service: Wildair: Disposable everything, and somewhat rickety high top tables for seating. Food was quite good, but not the best dining experience. Dame: Disposable everything, decent seating. Not particularly spaced out and it's on a busy sidewalk. Since I was there they've expanded to the frontage next to them, so it may be more spaced out now.

The marinated toro was potentially the best piece of fish I've ever put in my mouth. I think Sivan said it was marinated in red wine and sake? I was pretty drunk by then.

Yeah I'd bet that the six feet apart rule will be the big issue for small restaurants. It doesn't matter if you're "allowed" to operate at 25% (or eventually 50% on November 1 as is apparently planned) if the layout and size of your restaurant makes spacing tables out in accordance with the six foot rule difficult or impossible.

25% at most restaurants is what, 10-15 people? Don't see that helping much.

Of course he doesn't, he was describing every other dish as "heady" at Bloomberg before he did it at Eater.

https://sf.eater.com/2020/8/20/21377939/the-riddler-closure-hayes-valley-west-village-champagne-coronavirus Looks like The Riddler is closing permanently. I have to admit, I'm confused by this article. Obviously this is a difficult and unprecedented time, and I'm sure that the owners/investors/managers did a lot of analysis and soul-searching before deciding to close. But I've walked past the West 4th Street location 3-7 times/week for the last five months, and it has appeared fully boarded up the entire time (my recollection is that it was one of the first places to board up and did

They served an actual McDonald's burger?