I moved to Columbia in 1999 and one of the first lessons I learned was that there was no point in trying to go out to dinner on Friday nights. Everyone in Howard County had the same idea. Local restaurants at the time did not take reservations. If you risked it, you would be on a wait list. Wait, wait, wait.
Doing this with kids (or in uncomfortable shoes) was a nightmare. Light-up coasters provided no consolation. Staying home was the better option.
Since then the number and variety of restaurants in our area has increased dramatically. This is a purely anecdotal observation. I cannot quote you exact figures. But I feel like we reached a point where there were enough options to ameliorate the Friday night dilemma.
COVID wreaked havoc on the food service industry everywhere. Some local restaurants weren’t able to overcome the health and financial challenges. All the while, locals were agitating for less restrictions, more restaurants being open, more opportunities for them to “get back to normal.”
This fascination persists. Howard County remains excited about going out to eat and perpetually abuzz with any news of the opening of new restaurants.
I saw this post on the Howard County reddit this week:
How do all these restaurants survive? What's your favorite?
I have been living here for a year now and just flabbergasted by how many chains and restaurants are here and just wonder how they all survive?
My response:
They don’t all survive, sadly. COVID took a bunch of them. I think we may see another wave of closures due to 1) job loss in the civil service sector and 2) persecution/disappearing of nonwhite restaurant workers. If there are places you love dearly, support them and talk them up!
People who have lost their jobs can’t afford to go out to eat and restaurants whose workers are being kidnapped off the street can’t continue to operate.
The perfect storm, eh?
If the goal is to support local business economies across the country, what is happening now is not it. If the goal is to make the most people suffer, these actions are, as they say, “chef’s kiss.”
What will be the long term impact?
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