Restaurants Post-Coronavirus Promote Social Distancing In Creative Ways

According to an April report from the Burea of Labor Statistics, the restaurant industry is projected to lose $240 billion in sales this year. As coronavirus restrictions begin to ease, restaurants are reopening for dine-in services in hopes of making profits and giving patrons what they miss most: normalcy.   

Owners are faced with the difficult task of finding creative ways to encourage social distancing while also creating a welcoming environment for faithful customers. Tape and plexiglass might work, but what will give diners the restaurant experience they once knew in a post-pandemic world? 

From blow-up dolls to celebrity cut-outs, here are a few ways restaurants are encouraging social distancing during coronavirus. 

Fish Tales, a restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland, partnered with Baltimore's Revolution Event Design and Production to create the perfect way to keep customers properly distanced: bumper bar tables. Diners stand in the center of a large, black tube on wheels and enjoy their meals while standing. The size of the bumper bar table allows guests to enjoy their meals outside without the chance of getting too close to anyone, and thanks to the wheels, guests can freely move about. The bumper tables at Fish Tales are like a ride at the best theme park you've never heard of.

After speaking with a neighbor about the best way to encourage social distancing without having to use "foreboding yellow tape." Paula Starr Melehes, the co-owner of The Open Hearth in Greenville, South Carolina, came up with the perfect idea: blow-up dolls.

According to Melehes, the dolls have given customers a much-needed laugh and lightened the mood in a dark time. Guests have even offered to order the dolls a signature cocktail.

At Mediamatic Biotoop in Amsterdam, Netherlands, new social distancing procedures have turned a night dining at the restaurant into a romantic adventure. Diners can sit and enjoy their meals in Serres Séparées — small greenhouses that are enclosed for both safety and intimacy.

Twisted Citrus — a restaurant in North Canton, Ohio, that specializes in adding a creative spin to popular dishes — has enforced a new twist to guarantee patrons practice social distancing. Clear, plastic shower curtains, a common household item, have been arranged around the restaurant to separate diners.

At Maison Saigon, a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand, stuffed toy pandas have taken the place of patrons to enforce social distancing. A trip to the zoo might not be part of diners' summer travel plans after coronavirus, but with adorable pandas just a few feet away, they might feel like they're there.

It might not be Barbie dolls being used, but Café LIVRES in Essen, Germany, is attempting to make life fantastic — and safe – for diners. The cafe has positioned dolls taken from a theatre at tables to enforce social distancing rules. The dolls have been dressed in clothing resembling that worn by patrons and placed to mimic human actions. One doll was given a newspaper to resemble reading the daily news.