We love to go out to eat, but circumstances do not always allow it. As a member of the Great Kosher Restaurant Foodies public Facebook group I am amazed by the amount of money that is being spent on eating out these days (now and prior to the pandemic). Quite likely if I had it we would do the same.
One important thing that I have learned, together with many others over the past year, is how this pandemic has decimated the restaurant industry (both in the kosher and non-kosher world). I guess because I am from a more senior generation I always felt grateful for the kosher restaurant establishments. It was such a treat for me as a child to go out to eat with my parents, and as we married and had children it was festive to go out to eat. Nowadays it is more taken for granted, and children and adults are more accustomed to this celebration of life.
Since the pandemic began we have tried to “order in” from at least one restaurant a week. Not only did it break up the monotony for us but we also felt that we were doing our little role in supporting our local community restaurants. Certainly in this community there is no dearth of where to eat. I cannot imagine that any of the choices locally has fared well during the pandemic, and often we hear of many of them reaching out to local food banks, health care workers, etc., to provide them with treats.
What drives me crazy is that as our local restaurants are hurting and only when we hear that they are closing do we read comments of, “Oh, no, I loved that place.” Yet several times a week our communities are visited by other food establishments from outside our local area that take advance orders and then deliver on a specific day. I do not in any way doubt that the food coming here on a temporary basis is delicious. And I do understand that some of the visiting menus offer fare that is not available here in our own community. But in the situation we are all enduring now, where so many have lost jobs, are working under much less ideal conditions, etc., should we not be more anxious to support, if we are able, our local establishments first?
I can definitely wait to have Bucharanian, Scandinavian, Mexican and Indian kosher food once the pandemic is over and I can get in my car and drive to where these cuisines are sold. In the meantime, I encourage you to walk up and down the streets where our many restaurants are located and see if they are busy.
Hopefully we are looking towards the end of this nightmare. None of us actually knows that this is true but we are all praying that with the advent of the vaccine availability we will go back to some semblance of what life used to be. When it does, it will take a very long time for most things to return to normal, but if we do not support local businesses right now one thing is for sure: Things will never be the same.
By Nina Glick
