As cases of COVID-19 surge here and around the country, we feel that, as a restaurant, we have a moral obligation to say this as loudly and clearly as we can.
Do not dine indoors at a restaurant. Period.
Indoor seating areas at restaurants, breweries, and bars remain the hottest spots for transmission of COVID-19. This fact -- and it is a fact -- has been established by countless contact tracing surveys, by cell phone data, and by experiments while being explained by the too-long delayed acceptance of airborne transmission of the virus. In Allegheny County, the peak age range of new cases falls in the core demographic for restaurant patrons -- not students and not among older members of our community -- but among those between the ages of 25 and 49. Further, it is no coincidence that cases have risen in the wake of Governor Wolf allowing restaurants to resume indoor dining at 50% capacity and as the colder weather has driven eager patrons to choose indoor options. We are spreading this scourge of a disease indoors and at restaurants. And unlike colleges, where outbreaks have an opportunity to be controlled within a comparatively small and contained community, restaurants bring people in from all over a city, from many different social circles, and they send them out into the world to become the next set of vectors for transmission.
State and local officials, having already shut down restaurants once, believe that their hands are tied. Restaurant associations around the country are fighting for their member restaurants' lives in their lobbying efforts. State governments, with budgets that have already been shattered, are staring staggering losses in tax revenue and have no funds available to provide relief to the small businesses that the next shutdown will destroy. The Trump administration is hell bent on staying on the sidelines. Congress has no foreseeable hopes for a stimulus while it stays there. And the incoming Biden administration can't act until January, and even then, presuming the senate is Republican, it's unclear to what extent or how quickly it can act to provide stimulus relief.
In short, the cavalry isn't coming for any of us. For small restaurants and bars that have managed to survive so far, we're facing mass-extinction with the next shutdown. For our community at large, we're facing hospitalizations and deaths in unfathomable numbers without a shutdown. Nothing but hard roads lie before us. And there is no one at the wheel -- or at least no one who can afford the gas to get us to the end of the road.
But hope isn't lost. There is always hope. As playwright Tony Kushner once said, "hope isn't a choice, it's a moral obligation, a human obligation..."
There is hope for us, friends. But it requires us to make choices and decisions to help each other. It requires bars and restaurants to get creative, to push the limits of take-out and outdoor dining, and to reinvent themselves and their spaces once more. And it requires you to support the ones that do. It requires you to make choices to support those of us who are doing the right thing -- not because we legally have to do it, but because we know that we are morally obligated to.
In happier days, legendary New Orleans bartender, Chris McMillian once told me over his bar, in his beautiful Louisiana drawl, that "we vote with our dollars. I've had a craving for late night chicken on [insert French Quarter street here] but I won't go to [insert overrated fried chicken place here] because they don't care about their staff and they don't care about their guests. I'll go vote somewhere that does."
Chris's words are more impactful now, during this ruthless pandemic, than ever before. We know that indoor dining is incredibly dangerous. It's awful. Don't support people who do it.
Instead support the folks who are making commitments to take-out and outdoor-only dining. Support the places that keep reinventing themselves to survive in a way that doesn't participate in this scourge. Roundabout Brewery never reopened its tap room for indoor seating in the heart of busy Lawrenceville -- go visit them in their outdoor only beer garden on the Ohio River or buy cans at their brewery. Dancing Gnome invested in the lot behind it and chose to close its tap room entirely but for to-go sales. Apteka in Lawrenceville has transformed into a wine shop and does food pick up on Fridays and Saturdays. East End Brewing Company sells and delivers their cans and only allows guests on their patio. Bar Marco does take-out meals twice a week. And of course our very own Lorelei offers an outdoor-only, tented beer garden in the parking spots in front of it as well as a robust take-out menu of brats, dogs, flatbreads and more.
Follow Chris's lead. Vote with your dollars, friends. Support those businesses who are making incredibly hard choices to support their community and their staff right now. Bundle up and sit outside. Get take-out or delivery from restaurants who offer their own delivery service. Avoid ordering through big third-party corporations like Grubhub or Doordash that exploit the restaurants and their drivers. Super-spreader events and locations don't just impact the people who were at them; they can kill strangers who were miles away. You can help restaurants and breweries without having to sit inside of them.
For our part, we want to use our spaces in creative ways that will help you do that. We waited for the election to be over to tell you about it, but last Monday we opened up the IBC's Beer, Wine & Cocktail Emporium. We've learned a lot from the early days of the virus, including that retail can be done safely with occupancy limits and masks. So we've created a warm and cozy (but ventilated) shop for you to check out our beers, our wines, and our bottled cocktails in person, and where you can be warm when you're picking up your online order. We limit the number of guests to four people at a time, and we make sure we're keeping surfaces clean. In the coming weeks, we'll be adding more of our own (and Hidden Harbor's) merchandise as you gear up for the holiday season.
And, of course, we still offer delivery as well as contact-free curbside pick up (please note that we can't deliver wine or cocktails, which are only available for pick up). As you have been able to do since the beginning of our shutdown, you can order online in advance, or call us at 412-422-5040 to talk to one of the same dedicated employees that you’ve known since long before this hellish era to place an order.
We also remain dedicated to offering as much outdoor seating as we can if you are willing to brave the cooler temperatures. If you make a reservation, we can guarantee you a heat lamp. But, with the warm nip of rum, whiskey or barrel-aged beer and with the sweats only a spicy chicken sandwich or a fresh-off-the-grill burger can give you, I can tell you that if you come bundled up, you might not even need one.
Finally, we're trying to use as much daytime as we have left to create safe opportunities for you to enjoy a meal and a few drinks with friends outdoors. On Sunday, November 22, we're holding another Sunday event with our good friends at Blowfish BBQ, called the "Thanks-Tiki Luau." Blowfish will be providing smoked turkey pastrami, and smoked mac & cheese, while our kitchen serves some traditional Thanksgiving sides with tropical spins. The full menu and a link for reservations (or tickets for our new event take-out option) can be found here.
Friends, we're all in this together. Now, more than ever, we can make a difference. We can make good choices ourselves even if we're not legally mandated to make them. We can tell our friends and family how they can do the same. We can spread the word. We don't have to give up on friends or on restaurants. But we can't meet them inside of one. We have to get behind the wheel ourselves if no one else will drive for us.
With love,
Pete
