Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
© Copyright 2019 Dan Pitt
Dan Pitt’s Opinionated Compendium of Downtown Palo Alto Restaurants
© Copyright 2019 Dan Pitt
I have been dutifully maintaining this database, and even just added a listing (Ethel’s Fancy, under Unknown) and removed one (Umami Burger) as well as noted one as probably dead (Roost House). But the real fact of the matter is that with the coronavirus lockdown the entire restaurant scene has been transformed into chaos and uncertainty.
A fair number of places offer takeout and delivery but as they test out the profitability of these options there is no reliable catalog of them, not even here. For example, Vino Locale started to offer takeout but gave up after a week or two. I would say that Burma Ruby has been the most forthcoming, with colorful displays of menu items on sidewalk tables; they are trying very hard to survive. Bevri has a display out front, too. You wouldn’t know that Rooh offers takeout, too, just by looking, but it does (and it’s good) so I would advise you to call and see who is open and what is on their menu.
I suspect that quite a few of the restaurants listed here will not reopen. Even the current chatter about relaxing the stay-at-home directives suggests that restaurants that do open might have to reduce their occupancy by half. Given the rents in this area who can make rent with at most half the previous business? Will rents decline? No one knows. I think people will be fearful of getting too close to others for a long time, and no one wants dining out to be a fearful experience.
In my household we are four and all of us cook, so we have been cooking a lot, and it’s great to eat pretty well and even greater to have dining companions we love. We ordered out once but we are wary of getting the virus into the house. I feel for those who do not cook or who live alone. At least there are many options for takeout and delivery, and I applaud those of you who are helping to keep the restaurants alive by ordering from them.
I worry about the restaurant owners and staff, whether working (at risk) or not working (and losing all income). I only hope that the restaurant scene here, when it does return (even if gradually and incompletely), will retain its vibrancy. But I know there is no turning back the clock, and a new abnormal will be with us for a long time to come.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Yes, the world is upside down