“Under Siege” by Lisa Ocampo is worth 9 taco boxes.

As local art galleries have been shuttered for seven plus weeks, one gallery owner decided to see if he could supercharge the slow internet sale of his artists’ wares. Once he and his artists started contributing to feeding the local hospital nurses tacos from our favorites taqueria on Bull Street, KABOOM. After a little more than two weeks, it has worked out beyond anyone’s dreams. Donating somewhere between a 1/4 to a 1/3 of a painting’s or photo’s sales price to boxes of 20 tacos delivered to local hospital has resulted in more than 50 boxes delivered thus far.

“Breathless” by June Stratton is worth 8 taco boxes.

​​Savannah loves getting its taco on.

—–

Opening up

​A little more than one week after the opening up authorization from the governor went into effect here in the Empire, we have seen a few places open for in-store business that were prohibited previously for doing business.

One nail salon we drove by last week had both customers and staff wearing face masks, a precaution which falls within the state’s minimum basic operating guidelines. Other parking lots showed that gyms, yoga studios and spinning businesses were seeing a trickle of customers return to get back at it.

The choice for these small one off operators was simple: is the risk of reopening the equivalent of blowing through a red light at a busy intersection or can one pass through it if one slowly crosses when the chance of the owner, his staff and customers getting t-boned is low to zero? For these folks, given the mitigation and spacing efforts they enact and follow, it’s a risk they’ll take. Meanwhile at state beaches, “no chairs, no coolers, no umbrellas, no eating or drinking” are allowed. Only socially distanced exercisers. No sure if swimming or standing in the water is OK or not.

Sit down restaurants due to their required employee shift numbers even under the mandated reduced customer numbers allowed (10 per 500 sq ft) are faced with a pure business choice. Without a certain cost/profit outcome, it’s a no-go. Some have chosen to go the food truck route and have found amazing success, as long as the city approves their truck to operate and then use publicly frequented areas to sell food. The customers have been very appreciative and generous and been spreading the word digitally. Yet, success is relative, since in no way is a food truck(s) a replacement for a large brick and mortar business.

One silent consideration impacting these open/close restaurant decisions is public sentiment. There was a huge local outcry about a massive uptick in in-store eating. So, what we have seen during the past 10 days is a lot of folks now choosing to tailgate their carry out meals from the back of their trucks and SUVs, the hoods of and inside their cars. Socially distanced from their dining neighboring vehicles.

We’ll likely see some places located in strip shopping centers provide distanced tables (as long as the city looks the other way) out in their parking lots, so that patrons who come in the same vehicle can dine together outside.

Semper hungry seems to make us semper gumby.

​Savannah’s Bayou Café food truck

Copyright © 2020 From My Isle Seat
http://www.vicsocotra.com