Model companions: restaurant solves social distancing dilemma with mannequins
There you are enjoying a nice meal at an ornate, three-Michelin star restaurant, when you spot something odd. The waiter refills the wine glass of the patron sitting next to you. The person does not move, they do not blink. They do not even say “thank you” to the waiter. You are dining with a dummy. Welcome to dining out in the age of coronavirus.
That’s the experience the Inn at Little Washington, a restaurant in northern Virginia, is planning for diners as they experiment with what dining in could look like amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the idea that guests may feel lonely eating at a restaurant that can only reach 50% capacity – the maximum mandated by Virginia’s social distancing regulations – the restaurant will be placing mannequins throughout its dining rooms.
“When we needed to solve the problem of social distancing and reducing our restaurant’s occupancy by half, the solution seemed obvious – fill it with interestingly dressed dummies,” Patrick O’Connell, the star chef who heads the restaurant, told a Fox 5 DC, a local news station.
“I’ve always had a thing for mannequins – they never complain about anything, and you can have lots of fun dressing them up.”
As states experiment with partial reopening measures, restaurants are having to get creative about ways to encourage social distancing measures without ruining the intimate experience of dining in at a restaurant.
Some have installed dividers, like clear shower curtains or plants, to keep distance between guests.
Of course, the approach to social distancing the Inn at Little Washington is slightly more unique.
A picture the restaurant posted on their Instagram page shows a preview of the mannequins dressed in tuxedos and long dresses, facing each other in presumed conversation, their wine glasses half-full. The restaurant plans on having its staff treat the mannequins as if they were guests, engaging in conversation and occasionally filling their glasses.
The move is not necessarily surprising considering the restaurant is
known for its classy-meets-campy aesthetic and dining experience, which includes Faira, the restaurant’s mooing cow on wheels that has a platter of cheese on its back. “These are Faira’s faucets where the milk comes out,” Cameron Smith, the restaurant’s cheese specialist, said as he pointed to the underside of the cow in a Washington Post video.
O’Connell himself has become a revered chef for the restaurant’s eclectic cuisine and fine dining experience, collecting accolades like the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.
But at the end of March, O’Connell had to close the restaurant for the first time in 42 years and laid off most of his 175 employees, with the exception of key managers, the Washington Post reported in March. The Inn at Little Washington has since set up an employee relief fund to support its staff and offers unemployed staff members lunch three times a week.
As the restaurant plans to reopen its dining room, it will work with a local design company and a local theater to create the dining mannequins.
“The Inn at Little Washington has always celebrated the ‘living theatre’ of a restaurant,” O’Connell told Fox 5 DC. “We’re all craving to gather and see other people right now. They don’t all necessarily need to be real people.”