Eleven months have passed since Dallas dining rooms closed in response to the arrival of the coronavirus. Some of them still haven’t reopened.
A small group of restaurant owners have declined to resume dine-in service, instead sticking to takeout, curbside pickup, delivery or outdoor patios. Most of them operate very small businesses and are guided by concern for their employees’ and customers’ health.
That stance is backed up by science that suggests we should still be avoiding indoor dining. The government of Washington, D.C., found that over a four-month span, 14% of the district’s virus outbreaks took place inside restaurants and bars. A study by the University of California, San Francisco, found that cooks work the single most dangerous job of the pandemic, with bakers in fourth place, “chefs and head cooks” in 11th and bartenders 24th.