Restaurants in dire need of lifelines

There is something about eating at a restaurant that is so different from eating at home. Maybe, it is a special occasion. Maybe, it’s a chance to catch up with friends Friday night. Maybe, Mom just wants a break.

Whatever the motivation, the reason we gravitate to these public tables is about much more than the food. It’s about the things that aren’t on the menu: relief, relaxation and relationships.

It is all of those things we are hungry to get back after 10 months of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

It is all those things we get from the people who own restaurants and bars, who cook the food we crave and who bring it to the table. Even in the best of times, they do it with thin margins and small paychecks.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 64% of food service industry establishments are small businesses.

They are less likely to have cushions of cash reserves to rely on when disaster strikes — as it did in March, and stuck around.

Even if they had that safety net, it has probably been long since depleted, through the closures, the pivot to takeout and outdoor dining, to 25% and 50% indoor capacity, and then back to 0%.

So, it is not surprising that when COVID-19 infections spike upward, and the state’s orders clamp down, owners are frustrated and dismayed. Some have refused defiantly to close the doors.

It is likewise not shocking when people pack these open locations to show their support for establishments they like.

But while we have criticized the back-and-forth orders and sometimes confusing communication from Gov. Tom Wolf, the effort to keep people safe from COVID-19 is paramount.

Restaurants are, unfortunately, prime vectors for transmission of the coronavirus, with people in enclosed spaces, sharing air as they remove masks to eat and drink.

The establishments that defy orders are, in fact, prolonging the pandemic by increasing the spread of the virus.

If we want people to be safe and we want restaurants and bars to survive, what is the answer?

They cannot be expected to face financial ruin just for the bad luck of being public health hazards.

Takeout and delivery are important, but a restaurant cannot live on that alone. Government money must be extended to sustain them until vaccines are well distributed and the pandemic under control.

But it will also take more than cash. What it can be — and what it should be — is creative, collaborative and cooperative.

It will take new ideas, like more clever methods for outdoor dining in the colder months.

It will take customers making the extra effort to support their favorite places, safely, under prevailing pandemic restrictions.

And it will take partnership between the state and restaurants to find a way to support business while limiting exposure.

The pandemic will not last forever. No plague or outbreak ever has.

We will sit down to a steak dinner again. We will kick back over wings watching a game.

We will order dessert even though we say we shouldn’t.

We will make it back to our favorite joints.

As long as they survive to get there.