"Bring your blankets," Brickside Food & Drink advises on-site diners who can eat al fresco on their heated terrace at 4866 Cordell Avenue in downtown Bethesda. It's the latest sign of changes restaurants are making to survive what may be the harshest winter yet in an already-hostile-to-business jurisdiction, where indoor dining has been banned by the government.
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| Tent atop Tommy Joe's roof at Cordell and Norfolk Avenues |
Tommy Joe's - which has the advantage of a fairly spacious rooftop - has a tent up there now, as Caddies has for some time around the corner. Pines of Rome, one of Bethesda's longest-running restaurants, announced it will now be open every day of the week; it previously would be closed on Tuesdays. Pines will also be open today and on New Year's Day.
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| Shadows of diners can be seen inside the tent atop Tommy Joe's |
Intrepid diners are being invited into the newest tent Bethesda Urban Partnership erected in Veterans Park. The Bethesda UP tents, unlike those operated by individual restaurants, are self-serve as diners carry their takeout orders and seat themselves. Health authorities have not definitely stated what the level of risk in outdoor tent enclosures is versus indoor dining, but have said that at least one flap of the tent should be raised. Bethesda UP has said it is opening two flaps on its tents.
This all comes after restaurateurs who challenged the Montgomery County government's ban on indoor dining in court were rebuffed by the Circuit Court judge, even as Anne Arundel County's ban was rejected by a judge who once served as a Republican on the Anne Arundel County Council. That decision has so far not been accepted as precedent by his peers in Montgomery, Prince George's County or Baltimore City.
The tents are so dumb. Definitely should have banned indoor dining AND enclosed tents. Dumb half measures to placate businesses are why we're in this position in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @7:02 -- Right, make people stay home in enclosed spaces and spread Covid from one family member to another instead, just like in the good old days. Talk about dumb. Look at California - highest rate of cases in the country, despite more stringent measures to stop the spread. When more Bethesda restaurants and retail outlets close and there is not enough tax revenue to cover out of control spending, I don't plan to be here to foot the bill, so you will be stuck with it.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right 7:50, family members wouldn't spread to each other if only they could mingle with the general public for dinner! That'd totally stop the spread! Lol. With residents like you it's no wonder things have gotten this bad.
DeleteThis is a socialist take down of small businesses
ReplyDeleteThis is what my government did in Venezuela modeled after Cuba
Kill peoples income dependent on government
You have the very wealthy corrupt class with privileges like AOC get ii good vaccine $8500 suits
While rest live in shacks eat cats
Cuba just advised people to eat rats
So funny Americans think it cannot happen here - it already has
NOVA, here we come. All open, no issue. Will not eat out anywhere else until this stupid order is lifted.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @8:51 - You must be one of those people who think they are doing their part by staying at home and ordering everything they need to survive online. I have news for you -- other people have to 'mingle with the general public' in order for you to maintain this Covid lifestyle, including the people who work in Amazon warehouses, grocery stores, etc., the people who load the trucks, the delivery workers, and the people who grow, raise and process your food. All you are doing with your virtue signaling is shifting the risk of contagion onto other people, mainly those who are poorer and less fortunate than you. Wearing masks doesn't protect these people, as numerous scientific studies have shown. You remind me of people in my building who go around wearing masks all the time, but hire maids to come in the building to clean their units, as if wearing masks is going to protect them from being infected by the maids, many of whom live in overcrowded conditions and drive around Bethesda with other maids without wearing masks (I've seen this myself). You can't survive without other people mingling with the general public.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I saw a dead rodent squashed on the sidewalk on Norfolk avenue, near one set of tents. A metaphor for life in MoCo.
8:04 has got it all figured out.
ReplyDelete8:04 beating up all those strawmen. What a hero. lol.
ReplyDeleteAs President-Elect Biden said, we're able to quarantine in our homes because some woman is stocking the shelves at the grocery store.
ReplyDelete