My favorite ~75 year old BBQ place here in Pasadena has half the bar (where you'd sit and eat and socialize if you were eating alone) reserved to give space for all the take-out orders and uber-eats pickups flowing through. I see single people come in and, without a space at the bar, take a seat at a booth alone.
I don't blame restaurants for this at all, it's a tough business, but I do think it's about time we apply just an ounce of shame to people who uber-eats every meal they eat from restaurants clearly designed for eating-in. Not to rant, but take out is for the pizza place, the Indian grocery store with no seating, the tiny hole-in-the-wall Chinese place, etc. If you order a southern fried chicken plate from a nice neighborhood restaurant for delivery, shame on you. Delivery sushi? Boo and hiss!
"I do think it's about time we apply just an ounce of shame to people who uber-eats every meal they eat from restaurants clearly designed for eating-in"
Help me out here. What negative effect does that behavior have on the world such that people should feel shame for doing it?
(I'm still Covid cautious enough that I avoid dining indoors in places where I share air with strangers. This is a huge lifestyle limitation, but I enjoy not having to deal with long Covid very much.)
Ghost kitchens instead of community gathering places. 100 year old bar space used to stack outgoing uber-eats orders instead of for people to meet and chat. More plastic waste used on packaging. Fewer home-cooked meals. More time spent in front of the TV instead of in your community. A disrespect for expensive and supply-limited food - delivery sushi in particular strikes me as a culinary crime.
It's really not that big of a deal, but I will never not be a bit irked by that bar space being used to stack bags instead of to serve beer and brisket.
Restaurants were never community gathering places. I've been on this planet for more than 40 years and this is rose colored bullshit, sorry dude. You're forgetting that home cooked meals also include mac and cheese and frozen green beans and tater tots. Whatever past you're pining for is a fantasy, or pre world war 2.
It’s the age old story of change aversion. I imagine one can post-hoc rationalize an argument for the decrease in third spaces and ensuing loneliness or some nonsense that will quote statistics of the quality of “50% of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck”.
Nothing wrong with someone sitting in a booth alone if there’s a seat. It’s up to the restaurant to worry about maximizing their space. And it’s the restaurant’s choice to serve the take-out market. Shaming customers isn’t going to fix or change anything, and the restaurant does bear some of the responsibility; you can’t blame customers for buying what’s on order any more than you can blame restaurants for selling what customers will buy. Times have changed, and take out is no longer limited to pizza. You can choose to eat at restaurants that don’t do take-out, reward them with your business and tell them why, if you don’t want to see take-out business, right? I’m not sure but that might be limited to expensive fine dining at this point. Still, the only way you’ll curb the take-out take-over is if restaurants can make more money on dine-ins, and that sounds like a tall order. Or worse, a ship that’s sailed.
If the comment reflects the culture of the people sitting and eating at the bar, a preference to forgo sitting and eating at the bar seems quite rational to me.
I'm not a regular/local. Why would I go where I am not welcome?
If I owned the restaurant, why would I cater to an unwelcoming crowd?
The fact that sitting in at a nice cozy almost 100 year old bar and talking to your neighbors does not entice you is the problem I'm attempting to fix with a little good ol' fashion social shaming.
Nothing against people who like to chat with random strangers at a bar; that's perfectly fine. But no, sorry, it does not "entice me". I find it tiresome and distracting. I typically will only sit at the bar if I'm with others. If I'm by myself, I'd prefer a quiet table.
counterpoint: if you want to offer takeout at your restaurant it's on you to implement that correctly. if you can't do it right, don't offer it. takeout is for when I want to eat restaurant food at my house, full stop.
I don't blame restaurants for this at all, it's a tough business, but I do think it's about time we apply just an ounce of shame to people who uber-eats every meal they eat from restaurants clearly designed for eating-in. Not to rant, but take out is for the pizza place, the Indian grocery store with no seating, the tiny hole-in-the-wall Chinese place, etc. If you order a southern fried chicken plate from a nice neighborhood restaurant for delivery, shame on you. Delivery sushi? Boo and hiss!