A critic considers eating in restaurants while COVID-19 cases spike in California
It was a belated celebration meal for one of those milestones with a zero at the end of it. Your birthday, so you choose the restaurant, I’d told my friend — as long as the place had outdoor seating. It was the first meal back in a restaurant post-shutdown for both of us. He has an immuno-compromised family member he sees often; caution remains paramount. Any form of dining out carries some risk, but we’d agreed to take the chance of having dinner on a patio.
Inside, the three staffers at the host stand wore masks. On the way to the elevator we walked through the first floor’s dining rooms full of couples and groups at every other table; another staffer greeted us on the third floor and showed us to a side balcony with three tables.Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more from critics Bill Addison and Patricia Escárcega.
Servers and bussers wore masks, face shields and thin, wrinkled plastic gloves they changed often. My friend and I wondered when we should take our masks off. We removed them after ordering our meal and didn’t put them back on until we left. The light breeze as we looked out over North Cañon Drive felt irrationally reassuring.
I haven’t been drinking much at home. The first sip of a gin martini from Mastro’s bar was chiropractic — the years I’ve spent in restaurants, examining food from every intellectual and emotional and tangible angle, snapped back into place.We disappeared into chophouse classics: shrimp cocktail ; chopped salad; a small but impressively meaty crab cake , bone-in filet for him and rib-eye for me, loaded baked potato, creamed corn, sauteed spinach.
We relaxed into the meal; I was glad my venturing out had been to mark a special occasion. The auralike sensation of COVID-19 danger never receded — nor should it have. We asked our server, upbeat and ever-moving throughout our meal, how he was doing and how things had been. He shrugged, smiling, and motioned to his protective gear and said the restaurant had been busy. I left a generous tip.Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most.The next day my brain spun with plans.
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