Remember when that was one of the biggest buzz words in the restaurant world.

How do we make the change from the instinct to engage and have those “table touches” to still wanting to engage with the customer/guest but also maintain our social distance?

What kind of body language or nonverbal indicators are we going to be looking for to know

1. If it is ok to approach that table and engage in some small talk

or

2. If we should avoid that table because they don’t want that kind of contact in these COVID days?

We do not have a playbook or training program for that. We all want to be friendly, bubbly, outgoing and make sure the guests feel welcomed and that they are having a good time……

But where does that basic hospitality instinct give way to, I have to avoid getting to close to that table because they don’t feel safe?

I am the food safety guy and not a psychologist, but I have managed restaurants for many years and this new environment is going to be difficult to navigate from the FOH.

I think as an industry we have put as many safety measures in place that current science has come up with and we are all striving to follow the CDC Guidance and we should.

But now we find ourselves dealing with the really hard part, the part that we cannot predict or ever really understand.

What is going to make the consumer happy and feel safe? Are we going to make

• Employee temp logs (no names of course) available upon request
• Are we going to have to disclose how many employees have tested positive for COVID and when?
• Will consumers want to know what chemicals we are using to ensure the chemicals are CDC Approved and not on the CDC Avoid list?

This is one of my articles that will raise more questions than answers but we need to ask those questions now because as an industry we will find the answers but as in any business the person that finds the answers first will have a distinct advantage.

So you/we need to keep moving and innovating because this is the beginning and we have a long way to go.

Manny