{"id":13622,"date":"2020-03-10T11:18:29","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T18:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000008116"},"modified":"2020-03-15T23:25:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T06:25:59","slug":"working-in-a-restaurant-during-covid-19-is-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/working-in-a-restaurant-during-covid-19-is-interesting","title":{"rendered":"Don’t touch my pen: What it’s like being a server during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a Long Beach reporter by day and, by night, a server who works at a seafood restaurant in Newport Beach. Most of what I\u2019ve read and heard about the coronavirus in the news hasn\u2019t really followed me to my night job, though lately, it\u2019s gotten interesting.<\/p>\n

In the last couple of weeks, our restaurant has implemented a few safety protocols, most of which involved managers reminding us of proper handwashing procedures\u2014hot water, sing Happy Birthday twice\u2014and other CDC prevention tips we\u2019re all pretty aware of at this point: don\u2019t touch your eyes, nose or mouth; cover your sneeze or cough with a tissue, then throw it away; don\u2019t come into work if you\u2019re sick.<\/p>\n

The only new thing, really, is that now our bussers are wiping down tables with disinfectant wipes in addition to the sanitation cloths we traditionally use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to be double safe,\u201d my manager, Megan McGroty said.<\/p>\n

But, it\u2019s the tone of our customers that has shifted.<\/p>\n

Just this past weekend, in a moment of curiosity, one of my patrons asked if I was concerned about the outbreak. When I told her I wasn\u2019t, she responded similarly. Still, when it came time to sign her check, she declined to use my pen saying she didn’t \u201cwant to touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of all the new outbreaks so close to home\u2014Long Beach now included<\/a>\u2014some people are, understandably, frightened. My mother told me she’s afraid to leave the house.<\/p>\n

I was talking to one of my coworkers, Maria Guelde, who works at the restaurant twice as often as I do. She hasn\u2019t noticed people refusing to touch things, but she says guests bring up the virus all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get like two regulars asking me about it every shift,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s more so them trying to gauge if anybody else is freaking out or if everyone is staying calm. I just tell them everything that I keep hearing, which is that you\u2019re more likely to die from the regular flu than coronavirus, so I\u2019m not going to freak out until the CDC tells me to freak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Guelde is also the type of person who\u2019s always prepared for anything. She keeps a bottle of her handmade hand sanitizer in her apron. It\u2019s 91% alcohol. She\u2019s quite proud of it.<\/p>\n

News has always been fuel for conversation at the restaurant. As media coverage of the virus dominates every news outlet in the country, it has also dominated dinner conversation. When I\u2019m not being directly asked about it by my patrons, I hear the chatter in the dining room. And it’s a lot of chatter because, so far, the coronavirus hasn’t slowed business; people might be concerned, but they\u2019re not scared enough to start cooking.<\/p>\n

The clientele who come into our restaurant are the kind of folks who don\u2019t bat an eye at a $100 dinner for two, who say things to me like \u201cI\u2019ve been coming here since before you were born.\u201d It\u2019s true, many of them have.<\/p>\n