Restaurant restriction pushback & reality

Restaurant restriction pushback & reality
Seeing that I have many hundreds of friends and clients in the restaurant industry I’m sure I’ll get some resistance for this post. I am friends with a couple of the restaurant owners that are potentially filing litigation against the county. I think they’re making a selfish and dangerous choice. And maybe most importantly are wasting precious time that they could be utilizing to retool their operation to be successful during the pandemic. 
Are we really pretending that restaurants and bars aren’t at part to blame for the increase COVID cases? Of course they are. CDC has come out with multiple studies stating the obvious, restaurants, hotels, are absolutely contributing factors to the increase in COVID-19 cases. It’s common sense.
I’ve been hearing several comparisons of restaurants to big box retailers and the unfair restrictions that have been levied upon them.
1. They are absolutely not the same. People are not gathered in small groups at Walmart with masks off consuming food and drink into their body.
2. Retailers for the most part are socially spaced out with masks on 100% of the time.
It’s an  to  comparison. The only similarity is there place is a business the public frequent.
I would love to see how anybody can maintain any semblance of social distance and follow the appropriate guidelines after two or three vodka martinis.
This is the deathblow to many restaurants and it’s a horrible tragic situation. National Restaurant Association and Missouri Restaurant Association have done fucking nothing in the last nine months except try to offer bullshit seminars and market like it’s 2009. They are completely irrelevant and 15 years behind the times. They dropped the ball they should’ve been lobbying for some type of relief from the government. The anger and rage should be directed towards them.
What happens long-term? Nobody knows.
I think there are some pretty good tactical & strategic operational strategies that have been vetted and discussed that could potentially drive revenue and foot traffic.
But the truth is most operators are going to be petrified of changing anything in fear that they lose the little business they have. Instead of fighting the government with an unlikely reversal, this time would be much better spent working within the framework and setting yourself up for success.
With all that being said, I am the biggest proponent and cheerleader for the food and beverage industry especially in St. Louis in Chicago.
If I can help anybody in any small way please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. I have a good number of resources at my disposal and we have to help each other out in times like this. ️