Sorry, but dining out was already miserable before the coronavirus
by Eddie Scarry
March 27, 2020 11:02 AM My deepest sympathies go out to the servers, cooks, and custodians at restaurants across the country who have been laid off due to the current health scare. But now seems like a good time to talk about what was wrong with dining out before the coronavirus — which is to say, everything.
New York-based chef and restaurant owner Amanda Cohen bitterly wondered Thursday in the New York Times whether, once the coronavirus has been suppressed, customers would “be willing to pay $8 for a latte instead of $5 if it means their barista has health care†and whether they would “be ready to make sacrifices to build a better future for the people who pour our coffees and mix our drinks?â€
Or, she asked, “will we turtle up with a vengeance and focus on our own comfort until the next disaster?â€
Cohen acknowledged that “customers are willing to pay only so much for food,†even as “rent, utilities, insurances, taxes and food costs keep going up.†But she never addresses why customers with disposable income, money that by definition they want to spend, reach a cap when it comes to dining out. It’s because the experience is almost never good anywhere.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/sorry-but-dining-out-was-already-miserable-before-the-coronavirus