Eater - I'm rethinking how I dine. Again.

Hey everyone,

Last Saturday night, I ate indoors at a very hip, cultishly-loved restaurant in New York. It’s the kind of place where, before the pandemic, people would wait for hours to get the chance to squeeze into a table, practically on top of other diners, and order obscure wine and eat small plates of delicious, inventive, cheffy food.

It’s now reservation-only, but little else has changed. So on Saturday I found myself (just like old times!) sitting inches away from another couple, all of us yelling over our food to be heard over the blare of the music. The doors — which can fully open garage-style to the street — were all closed to keep the air conditioning in. And I wanted out of there.

Perhaps the situation would have felt jarring even a few weeks ago, but with the delta variant now surging, even as a vaccinated person in a restaurant requiring it, I felt closed in upon. Similarly, I attended a packed Ali Wong show on Wednesday. 2,000 people, all vaccinated but many unmasked, in an old theater laughing and screaming for two hours. It seemed like a fine idea when my friends and I booked in July, but I started having second thoughts as we navigated the crush of the bar.

I think a lot of people are going through this dance now and having these conversations that had kind of fallen away in the first half of the summer. The calculations have changed immensely with vaccines, but they are calculations nonetheless and ones that I imagine vary based on location and risk tolerance, on who you follow and what you’ve been reading.

I'm wondering, as I watch the case numbers rise and the OpenTable reservation numbers dip, how we navigate this latest phase and what it means for the collective recovery.

— New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Montreal are all requiring proof of vaccination in order to dine indoors. Meanwhile in Texas, you may be putting your liquor license at risk for requiring it.

And pretty much every business owner, regardless of region, is risking online and in-person harassment for requiring proof of vax. To me, one of the clear added benefits of these citywide mandates is giving cover to restaurants who no longer have to take responsibility for the decision.

— Openings: Daru, a long-awaited Indian restaurant, in D.C.; Rumba Kitchen, a tribute to the kioskos in Puerto Rico, in LA; and Abacá, a California-Filipino pop-up turned brick and mortar, in SF.

— Insane-seeming new development in New York: We are now air conditioning our outdoor dining sheds (while keeping the windows and doors open).

— London institution the Wolseley is fighting its landlord over a whopping £1 million rent bill.

— What the breakthrough outbreak in Provincetown has done to its seasonal hospitality business — and how the queer community there was instrumental in keeping it contained.

​​— How strapped small business owners are navigating the labor shortage.

— It's Barbecue Week in Los Angeles. This collection is a thorough and compelling look at the city's barbecue boom and its traditions, styles, history, and characters. There are reports and essays and maps and videos and more mouthwatering photos of brisket than one human can handle. Check it out.

— Why Pakistani mangoes are so hard to find in the U.S. (and how to get them).

— The latest TikTok dish breaking through to restaurant menus is (okay!) corn ribs.

— I, too, believe Dunkin’ makes perfect doughnuts.

— In her new Netflix cooking show, Paris Hilton owns the joke.

— Watch: A peek inside a buffalo mozzarella factory in Italy that makes 11,000 pounds of cheese a day.

— Recipe: A brownie cake with a fun twist.  

— And please check out Gastropod's latest episode, an exploration of the world of edibles.

Take care, and if you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. — Amanda

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