The Washington Post - 13.03.2020

(lu) #1
the washington post

.
friday, march 13, 2020

eZ

20


From the Cover


Reveler’s Hour


1775 Columbia R d. NW. Open Tues-
day-Sunday. revelershour.com.

show up at 5 p.m. on the dot on
saturday at Ta il up goat’s sister
restaurant devoted to pasta in
adams morgan without a reserva-
tion, and the folks at t he host stand
will wave you in cheerfully to grab
one of the wide-open tables at the
front of the restaurant. Those 34
seats in the bar area are available
exclusively for walk-in guests. The
restaurant opens at 5 p.m. fridays
through sundays and at 5:30 p.m.
on Tuesdays through Thursdays
for those who want first crack at
getting seated immediately.
after that, add your name to
the wait list for bar seating and
dive into the wine list and a book
made to look like a binder of
baseball cards showcasing wine-
makers. “We’ll get a drink in your
hand while you’re waiting,” a
hostess promised as we inquired
on a recent saturday night about
coming back for an 8 p.m. table.

If you want to book online: rev-
eler’s Hour opens reservations up
at 10 a.m. on resy for seatings up
to 28 days in advance. There’s a
cancellation fee of $15 per person
if you cancel the day of your meal
after noon, and that fee will be
donated to the charity organiza-
tion miriam’s Kitchen.

If you strike out: Down Columbia
road, mintwood place i s a longtime
favorite for french-accented fare,
while Lapis serves up dumplings
and more homey afghan dishes.
[email protected]

from previous page

deb Lindsey For the Washington Post
Cape May scallops with kumquats and celery a t Reveler’s Hour. Showing up right when it opens gives you a better chance at a table.

ing her habit as the virus poten-
tially spreads in the greater Wash-
ington area.
Tillipman, 41, is mostly con-
cerned about buffets or counter-
service restaurants where cus-
tomers may share serving spoons
or credit-card touch screens or
even condiment shakers. on
monday, she skipped the sprinkle
station at her local poke shop out
of an abundance of caution, and
when she signed her name on the
touch screen, Tillipman used her
pinkie to make a single dot. Then
she immediately rubbed her
hands with sanitizer.
“i’m fully aware of the absurdi-
ty of my actions right now,” she
said.
Tillipman said it’s a matter of
time before she starts bringing
her lunch to work. “i don’t think
it’s worth putting my family’s
safety or friends’ and colleagues’
safety i n jeopardy with me getting
sick,” s he said. “But at s ome point,
i think it’s going to be a necessity
for everybody.”
Diners across the country are
reassessing their relationship

with restaurants, fast-casuals and
even neighborhood bodegas as
the coronavirus makes its rounds.
many diners remain wary of set-
ting foot into eateries of all kinds,
even though public health ex-
perts say restaurants are just as
safe — and perhaps even safer —
than other public spaces, such as
buses, subways and event venues,
where people are packed closer
together than the three-foot buf-
fer recommended by the World
Health organization between you
and a coughing or sneezing per-
son.
owners and operators across
the united states, from corpora-
tions such as mcDonald’s to your
local pizzeria, are hyper-aware of
customer concerns. They only
have to read the stories out of
italy to know how quickly for-
tunes can change from a packed
restaurant to a ghost town. so
they’re trying to get ahead of the
fears by implementing new pro-
cedures and tightening up cur-
rent ones.
Here’s what people should
know about dining out right now:

Stay flexible.
Leana Wen, a visiting professor
of health policy and management
at george Washington universi-
ty’s milken institute school of
public Health, notes that the cor-
onavirus spread is a “very fluid”
situation and that people should
keep monitoring it so that they’re
basing their choices on the latest
information. “people should
make decisions right as they go
out,” s he said.
They should heed the most
up-to-date advice from the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and pre-
vention, she said, and because the
outbreak is playing out different-
ly across the country, they should
also be aware of what local health
officials are recommending.
right now, the CDC is advising
people at high risk to avoid
crowds. High-risk people — older
people and those with underlying
conditions — in areas where the
virus is spreading should “take
extra measures to put distance
between yourself and other peo-
ple,” according to the CDC, and
“stay home as much as possible.”

such “social distancing” hasn’t
been recommended for the gener-
al population, though people
such as Christian Bergland are
already thinking about such
things. Bergland, a 33-year-old
nonprofit worker in New York
City, said he’s thinking about
keeping his distance from small
mom-and-pop eateries, where
employees handle cash and then
hand over your food.
if the coronavirus gets worse,
Bergland said, “i think i will be
skipping the pizza spots for a bit.”

Eateries are taking extra
precautions.
although you can’t come into
contact with the virus through
food, the hard surfaces you en-
counter in a restaurant, such as
menus, utensils, salt shakers and
the like, are another story. Larry
Lynch, senior vice president of
certification and operations at
the National restaurant associa-
tion, said his organization is tell-
ing restaurants to pay particular
attention to wiping things down.
restaurants are being advised to

BY EMILY HEIL
AND TIM CARMAN

Jessica Tillipman figures she
has eaten out for lunch every
work day for the past 12 years, not
counting the occasional catered
spread, which is a whole other
issue as the coronavirus raises
fears about sharing a meal in
public. But the assistant dean at
george Washington university
Law school said she is reconsider-

Dining out


during the


coronavirus


outbreak?


What you need to know
about the extra
precautions

UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
Free download pdf