The New York Times - USA (2020-06-28)

Go right ahead and leave a cash tip for Debi

Kane, a waitress at a TGI Fridays in Corona,

Calif. She’ll appreciate the money, but

there’s a catch. Under the company’s new

pandemic-inspired rules, she will need to

drop off those dollars in a back room, then

head to a sink, take off her gloves and wash

for 20 seconds. Then she’ll wipe her hands

with paper towels and wave them in the air

for a couple of minutes, willing them to dry.

“We’ve all tried to get a new pair of gloves

on when your hands are damp and believe

me, it doesn’t work,” Ms. Kane said before a

shift one morning in mid-June. “So we stand

there, waving.”

She is following the new protocols laid out

in a 51-page document assembled by the

TGI Fridays management: “Operations

Playbook: Welcome Back Into the Game

2020.” It explains how to adapt the familiar,

beloved pageantry of chain-restaurant din-

ing — featuring buoyant servers, unlimited

breadsticks, ample portions, entrees with

“fiesta” or “dragon glaze” in their name and

value, value, value — to the Covid-19 era.

The playbook has particulars on every-

thing from menus (one-page, disposable) to

condiments (single-use containers only) to

how diners should be greeted by hosts (with

hand sanitizer). Coronavirus-related signs

have been mailed to the company’s 314 op-

erating restaurants. “This table has been

sanitized by your Fridays Team,” reads one.

Another outlines what’s called the “Fridays

Clean Guarantee,” a sort of Bill of Rights for

lovers of loaded potato skins and pan-

seared pot stickers.

After decades of emphasizing ambience,

BOGOs and Dollaritas, big restaurant

By DAVID SEGAL

Welcome

To Applebee’s!

Can I Get You

Started With

Some Disinfectant?

HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Chain restaurants are trying to coax customers

back with promises of germ-free dining.

Every Applebee’s Bar & Grill

now employs a “sanitation

specialist” like Eris Amaya,

above, at the chain’s

restaurant in Westbury, N.Y.,

to reassure anxious customers

who fear the coronavirus and

other customers.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

2 WITH INTEREST

Restrictions on workers from abroad are making

some business groups unhappy. By CHARLOTTE COWLES

4 LIKE A BOSS

Carlton McCoy, the C.E.O. of Heitz Cellar in Napa

Valley, is a rarity in the wine industry. By BEN RYDER HOWE

6 THE OFFICE JUNGLE

Who’s tending the plants we left behind in our mad

dash for home? Interior horticulturalists, of course.

INVESTING INNOVATION JOBS MBWC SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020