#ill wait a couple days to reopen the ask box

[rassicas]

i finished side order. all the palettes. im gonna wait like a week before i start posting actual spoilery stuff. but my vague, overall review is... it was good! solid! i am pleased. i didnt feel like there was stupid, immersion-breaking stuff. potential stupid ideas i feared could happen didnt. i think it also helped a lot that i tempered my expectations. there was lore that im surprised was touched on, might be alienating to new players but i really dgaf, i think splatoon needed to break away from how self contained(?) its stories have felt. i'll have to rewatch cutscenes and dialogue to better absorb what happened and analyze etc. maybe later ill have some criticisms but for now nothing glaring unlike rotm which is a plus. if anyone's interested, i recorded most of my playthrough with my thoughts as i went along, i'll trim that into a highlight video in the near future.

[sylvanfreckles]

The Walrider: Pt 1 of 5

(For Day 02: Nowhere to Run)

Fandom: Supernatural x Outlast Rating: M Chapter warnings: references to unethical and inhumane psychological practices and experimentation Story warnings: intense violence and gore, eventual body horror, references to torture

Summary: Run, hide, or die.

An investigation brings the Winchesters to Mount Massive Asylum, a supposed research hospital deep in the Colorado mountains. But what they thought was a run-of-the-mill exorcism turns into a terrifying tour of hell on earth as they come face-to-face with the inmates of a place built to feed off of their worst nightmares.

And deep at the heart of it lies something ancient and dark, waiting for its chance to walk the earth again.

...

“You sure it’s up here, Sam?” Dean asked. The Impala’s headlights were doing little to cut through the dust on the mountain road, and with no streetlights and an overcast sky there was little else in the way of light.

Sam was squinting at his phone, though it was good for little more than a flashlight now. “Cell service cut out a couple miles ago, but there haven’t been any side roads. If Charlie’s info is right, it should be right up ahead.”

Dean grunted in reply. “Speaking of that, go over the info again, where we headed?”

“Mount Massive,” Sam explained. He pulled a slim folder out of the glove box and flicked on his flashlight to read the papers. “Used as an asylum for the ‘criminally deranged’ in the nineteen sixties, shut down in the seventies after three staff members were killed by patients. Reopened five years ago by the Murkoff Group, a humanitarian organization claiming to research the ties between mental illness and certain kinds of violent crime.”

“So, what, guy shoots up a convenience store so he must be crazy?”

Sam pulled a face. “Unfortunately, yeah. It seems more like a modern Lombroso theory than any actual psychology here.”

“Lomb what now?”

“Lombroso. In the nineteenth century he theorized that crime was inherited, and you could predict if someone was going to be a criminal by studying their facial features.”

Dean looked at his brother, barely keeping his eyes on the road.

“What?” Sam finally snapped.

“Nothing, he just might have a point. You look like someone who murders all the fun in the room the moment he walks in.”

Sam let out a heavy sigh and straightened the papers in his hands. “Anyway, like I said, Murkoff’s been up there for about five years now, but no research has actually come back out. Patients go in, but nothing comes back. Families have to sign over all rights, can’t even get word if anyone’s still alive up there.”

“Except Charlie’s friend.”

“She thinks it’s her friend. Email was heavily encrypted; all she could pull out of it was something about dream therapy going too deep and finding something inside the mountain. And the video.”

Dean nodded. He didn’t need to see the video again. Three orderlies—dressed more like high-level security guards—flung around a room by an invisible force. It was, unfortunately, a familiar enough sight for someone in their line of work.

“And here we are,” Dean announced as they rounded the corner, and the asylum came into view. “Check it out, Sammy.”

Sam, shoving the papers back into the glovebox, let out a whistle as the building came into sight. Three stories above ground, not including the towers at the corners, the sprawling brick structure crouched under the night sky like a waiting predator. Only a few of the windows were lit up from within, though the front façade was lit from the spotlights off some heavy-duty military trucks. The entire building gave off an aura of something ancient and sinister, even if the reports all stated construction had begun after World War II.

Dean pulled off into the grass beyond the complex’s gates, where the faint light from the guard shack wouldn’t reach them. “They call in the army?”

“Looks like private security.” Sam stuffed his useless phone into his pocket as he stared up at the building. “Don’t see any movement.”

There was something in the building. You didn’t spend most of your life hunting things that went bump in the dark without picking up a sense for things like this. Silently, the brothers crept toward the building, keeping to the shadows and skirting around the illuminated courtyard.

“Sammy,” Dean tugged on his sleeve, gesturing to the side of the building. “Take the side door?”

Sam opened his mouth to answer, then shut it again when he saw where his brother was pointing. Scaffolding had been set up against one of the walls, and at the top a flutter of curtains showed where the window was open. “After you.”

Dean led the way through a half-open, rusted gate that opened onto a smaller garden on the side. The garden looked like it hadn’t been properly tended since the place originally shut down in the seventies. The fountain contained more bracken than water, and the planters were so overgrown they threatened to take over what little remained of the paths.

The scaffolding was new, however. It was an easy climb up to the second floor to an empty office. Furniture was scatter haphazardly and something dark was smeared across a corner of the wall TV.

“All right, so,” Dean began, then the lights cut out as an ear-piercing scream echoed through the building. Wordlessly, the brothers moved to position themselves on either side of the office door, guns drawn. Dean waited for Sam’s signal before opening the door and ducking into the hall, flashing his light up and down the hall before gesturing his brother to join him.

“That sound human to you?” Dean whispered.

Sam swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

The hallway was lit with dim emergency lighting, though there was more shining through the door at the end. There were more smears and stains, too. Dark blood smeared along the wall, leading to a bathroom. Sam held his breath as Dean tested the knob and found it locked, like all the other doors along this hall.

“What are the chances it’s just another demon?” Dean asked as they neared the door at the end of the hall.

“Place like this?” Sam shook his head. “Probably has its share of restless spirits. Gotta be a lot of violent deaths here.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that.” They’d reached the door at the end of the hall and Dean gave it an experimental jiggle. Locked. He took a step back to study it for a moment, then rammed his shoulder against the door hard enough for it to shake in the frame.

“Dean!” Sam hissed.

“Wanna backtrack and find another way in?” he demanded in return.

Sam met his brother’s eyes and glanced away. It felt like something in the building was watching them, waiting for them. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck had been raised since they’d climbed through the window, and it was only getting worse.

But they’d both heard the scream. It could mean a survivor, and every second they delayed could be the difference between life and death.

Dean turned back to the door and slammed into it again. The door shuddered and groaned, and on the third blow it gave way as the frame splintered out around the lock. Beyond the door was a hall that ran around three sides of the first-floor lobby, the inner wall lined with windows that looked over the open space. A pair of massive chandeliers lit up the space beneath, bright enough to illuminate the hall around them.

“Lobby’s empty,” Sam announced, after risking a peek through one of the windows. As far as he could tell, it was just a security desk. No waiting areas or benches.

“Come on,” Dean nodded toward the elevator and stairs at the back of the building, on the middle section of the u-shaped upper hall. “We can get down there and have a closer look.”

They kept close to the wall, slipping past a couple of rooms with little numbered plaques next to the doors. Looked like the asylum’s executive offices, might be a good place to check for information once they had a better scope of things.

Dean pulled up short with a curse. “Can’t go this way.”

Sam leaned around him to study the debris blocking the hall. “Think it’s a barricade?”

Dean snorted. “No, Sammy. I think someone just chose this spot for its aesthetic appeal.”

“Shut up, Dean.” Sam shrugged past him to study the debris. It wasn’t too bad, mostly a couple of bookcases leaning against a filling cabinet, surrounded by some other heavy stuff. “Hey, I think we can get through here.”

He shoved the bookcases aside a little and squeezed into the empty space. It was close, but he was able to shuffle through to the other side, though not without a few scratches on his hands and neck. “No big deal, see?”

Dean, flashlight out, stared through the fallen bookcases at his brother. “Yeah, well, that’s ‘cause you weight, what, a hundred eighty pounds? Soaking wet?”

Sam huffed. “What, you eat too many pies to squeeze through?”

His brother just grumbled, shoved at the bookcase, tucked his gun into his belt and his flashlight between his head and shoulder and tried to squeeze into the space. Sam grinned and opened his mouth to call encouragement when one of the doors behind Dean was flung open.

“Little pig!”

Sam tried to shout a warning, but it was too late. A massive hand caught Dean by the shoulder and spun him away from the pile of debris.

It was a man…possibly. At least a head taller than Dean and nearly twice his size. Dean tried to grab his gun, but the man planted a hand on his chest and drove him against the window hard enough that the glass shattered. Sam called his brother’s name and tried to go back through the debris, but Dean was already disappearing over the edge of the window, down to the lobby below.

Sam rushed to the window and stared in disbelief at his brother’s body, crumpled on the floor nearly twenty feet below. He had little time to think or plan as the man who’d attacked Dean was tearing at the barrier now in a snarling fury. Sam took a few shots at him, but that didn’t seem to slow him down.

There was no time. The barricade was in splinters and the man who’d attacked Dean was almost through it. Sam turned and ran, ducking down the next hallway and into the darkened maze of Mount Massive Asylum.

[uniquemekylieb]

A couple days ago, my co-admin and I decided to put our blog on a mostly permanent hiatus.

We started this blog three years ago, just because I had the idea: what if we started a scenario blog? At that point, it was all in the heat of the moment; we were excited, we both loved this show so much, so we decided to go ahead and create that blog. We called it K Project Scenarios. We spent hours putting it together, from @trinitythatcher writing up the rules for our blog, to me getting the theme set and personalized with bunches of coding. We donned the pseudonyms Admin Ahiru and Admin Kai, and put out our first post:

“We’re Open For Business~!

Hello all~! Admins Ahiru and Kai here to introduce you to our splendid super awesome-tastic blog~!

We are a scenarios blog centered around the anime K Project and its other manga/movie adaptations. So, you all know the drill! Bring us your requests, headcanons, etc. and we’ll do our utmost to write you something entertaining~!

Start here: http://kprojectscenarios.tumblr.com/rules

Then take a trip to our beautiful scenic ask box over here~!: http://kprojectscenarios.tumblr.com/ask

Thanks for your interest~! Happy days~!

~~Admin Ahiru & Admin Kai”

From then on, we got requests from so many people, fellow fans of K Project that had ideas and stories that they wanted to be put down in a bit of writing by two strangers. And we wrote. We wrote the hot, steamy stuff, the things that made you want to fall in love, the things that made you want to cry. 

Eventually, we got so big that we had to close the ask box at times because we had so many requests. But still we wrote; we wrote and we wrote and we wrote until all the requests had been written. So we reopened the ask box again to see just what other amazing ideas our readers had for us. And we got more, more requests, more possibilities for magic to be written. We wrote about mental illnesses, we wrote about marriage and pregnancy. I wrote a whole piece about the tragedy of war and it’s affect on a relationship.

We wrote because we loved it. We loved seeing how people loved what we made. We loved knowing that we had fulfilled someone’s idea, and made it as real as we could.

Even when our writing began to slow down, and motivation dwindled, or we just couldn’t find it in ourselves to write something, our blog was still a priority, it was important, and we made sure we kept it active, whether it be through ‘Sleepover Saturdays’ where we answered anything our readers sent us, or reblogging news about K Project, or art, or videos, or anything else. The blog was going to stay relevant to us.

But time is a cruel mistress; over time, we just couldn’t muster anything for our writing anymore. We still loved K Project, and we loved the community we had built on our little blog. But the magic of writing that it once had had slowly run out. So it laid neglected, with only reblogs here and there. Not forgotten, but left on its own in the hopes that another written piece of magic would be posted one day. 

That day never came... Even if we didn’t want to, we had to face the facts: we had run out of the magic and wonder that we once had. We didn’t have any more splendor to put down, no more creativity for the ideas that sat in our inbox, no more spark. So we ultimately agreed that the time had come for the blog to be put on a permanent hiatus. I wrote the announcement: that K Project Scenarios would be closing its metaphorical doors, the newest and latest written post the blog had seen in a little less than a year.

Over those three years, as our blog grew, we grew with it. Even if life was changing for us, the blog was there, teaching us in ways that I don’t think we could have realized back then. We learned from it in the most subtle of ways. We learned that it was okay to focus on us, to take the time we needed to do what was best for our needs, to stand up for ourselves just the tiniest bit more, that our worth was dependent on no one but us. Our blog brought us closer together, and even now, as I sit here and think back on how things were before the blog, I don’t think we would be as incredibly close as we are if we had never started it.

The announcement was posted a couple days ago. I’ve been in (and just finished) the process of moving all the pieces I wrote to another site. I’ve gotten to reread what I’ve written for our little blog, and I’ve remembered how I felt and where I was when I wrote them all. I’ve remembered the joy I felt when I wrote them, I remember the joy that our followers seemed to feel when reading and commenting about them. I’ve remembered what it felt like to be a writer, who’s goal was to make others happy.

 In all honesty, I wasn’t feeling the weight of what was actually happening when I wrote that announcement, and not when I hit the button to post it either. But since now that I found that very first post that you’ve seen above, and since now that I’ve read everything again and now I’ve remembered all those good, warm memories, the weight is now barreling down on me. Our little blog that was started merely out of a little idea and ton of aspiration and passion and love, is closed down, on an indefinite hiatus.

And I’m mess. I’m crying real tears, and I’m feeling true sadness and heartbreak over what our little blog has come to. If I could rekindle that fire and spark again, I would in a second. I would write the most inspiring stories, I would bring those characters life again, and I would take the requests of those who have followed us for so long and bring their ideas to life. 

And that’s why the blog isn’t dead. Because one day, even if it’s just me on my own, I’ll come back to our little blog, and I will write. I will write because I want to make others happy. I will write because I love those characters. I will write because I love it. I will write because that spark and wonder and joy in me will be back.

Our love for the series hasn’t died, our love for writing hasn’t died, and neither has our love for our family that we grew on our blog. Our blog is still our precious, precious baby.

So, if any of our family from our little blog is still around, and is reading this now,

Don’t worry. I will be back one day; our little blog will come back to life. Just wait and see.

With love,

             Admin Kai  ♥

[thegoditwasbuiltfor]

Homeschooling

I first became a parent 16 years ago, in 2004.  When I was considering all the avenues available to benefit my parental style, I had briefly considered homeschooling, among other decisions such as only feeding my baby non-packaged foods I had prepared myself and using cloth diapers.  Like most parents, I was ambitious and wanted the best for my baby, and I was willing to jump through incredibly tiny, flaming hoops to make that happen.  However, as I went week by week, month by month with my eldest child through the stages of infancy, I quickly realized that some decisions, unlike others, were big steps in completely different directions, and many of these choices were unnecessarily exorbitant.

Lo and behold, I didn’t feed my baby only non-packaged foods (and I couldn’t have even if I wanted to; she didn’t particularly prefer my homemade foods to the ones that came in jars and boxes), I didn’t use cloth diapers, and I decided early on that homeschooling was for parents who had the privilege of staying home, which I did not.  It wasn’t that I considered any of those choices impossible to make happen, or even that I didn’t consider myself one of “those” kinds of parents--I did, and I do.  But the truth is, some things were just too difficult to make happen, and in some cases would have been detrimental to my finances and daily routine.  Long story short, I made the less-popular choice to favour my time and money.  Go ahead and call me an asshole.

For almost a decade, and two more kids later, the basic system of frugality and time-saving I had created for my family’s day-to-day life was working efficiently, like a well-oiled machine.  The kids had a routine that included going to daycare, before-and-after, and/or school.  And for the duration of the decade, my kids excelled in school, easily bringing home A’s and B’s without much trouble.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I had to sit down and help a kid with homework.

So in 2013, when we were planning my son, I had no reason to think that my system wouldn’t continue to be effective for a further decade.  And when my son was born the following year, I had given less than 10 seconds thought to how his education would begin and end, because public schooling had always worked for us.  I returned to work within the year of his birth (and quit shortly after), I had a great time jumping from one daycare to another, including the part where I had to sue a provider.  By the time my son was in a comfortable childcare facility, the only question left was which of the many schools in the neighbourhood he would attend.

In the end, I let old habits take over.  I made an appointment at the school my eldest daughter had attended to have my son enrolled.  I vividly remember sitting him down at a table full of legos right outside the office as I filled out the paperwork.  I was handed a flyer for a Kindergarten “Meet and Greet” which was held a few weeks later, and we went on our way.  We met with the Kindergarten teacher and several other parents of school-aged children who would be starting at the same time as my boy.  The evening was a success, but of course my system had predictably ensured me of that.

When it was time to start school, my son was nervous (and so was I, does that ever get any easier?), but he marched in like the big boy that he is and didn’t even shed a tear.  He had a great day, and couldn’t wait to go back.  By the end of the week, he was praising his teacher as the greatest human being on Earth.  By the end of the month, half of the kids in his class were his “best friends” and he was thrilled, overall, with his experience.  By the time parent-teacher meetings rolled around in November, he was quite comfortable and knew his way around the place like he had been there his whole life.  His teacher had nothing but good things to tell me about his progress and behaviour.  All was well, as I had always expected it to be.

It was 2019, and we were home over Christmas break, enjoying some much-needed family time and we briefly discussed an illness sweeping through China.  Boy, were we in for a treat.

When school resumed, all went back to normal, and for 2 months, we had no issues.  Sometime before the new year, things were going so smoothly we had even added both swimming on Tuesdays, and Karate on Thursdays to our schedule.  In January, thinking I was ahead of the curve, I signed my son up for two more activities: Soccer in the spring, and Karate Camp over March break.

By February, as everyone in North America already knows, the proverbial shit had hit the fan: SARS-CoV-2 had reached us and was beginning to spread.  It’s spread began slowly, and I had not yet registered the thought that it was coming for Canada.  We went ahead with our daily lives like nothing had changed.  So I remember the confusion and general disbelief in March as the school had sent out letters stating that the government was considering a provincial shutdown of schools just ahead of Spring Break.  Teachers scrambled to put together take-home packages of work, and even though a date was set as the “last day” of school, mid-way through the week, less than half of the kids were showing up, and my son was one of only two students to attend over those last few days.  

I spoke with the other mom and we both agreed to keep our kids home over the remaining days, since no one else would be there, and I went back to the school the next day to pick up a work package.  At that time, the thought of homeschooling my son for a couple of extra weeks felt like child’s play.  I had no issue going over simple words and math, reading, and playing games for a while.  

Eventually Spring Break simply became the end of the school year, children did not reattend at all for the remainder of the year, and some teachers had put together remote learning programs.  Since my son was in Kindergarten, I wasn’t terribly worried about it, I figured everything would be back to normal by the following school year.  For the second time in my carefully-cultivated plan, I was wrong.

We spent our summer in the usual way: trips to the beach, birthdays, playdates, and camping.  We were being cautious and avoided spending time with too many people, but at that time the numbers were still very low.  Back then, everything was still open, people were still coming and going without issue and the spread of Covid simply didn’t exist in my province.  We wore masks and socially distanced when we went out, but the threat of catching the virus was minimal, we had fewer than 10 cases province-wide and no deaths.  And those numbers had held for several months.

By August 2020, our numbers had climbed exponentially and there was no going back.  It was then that my husband spoke to us about being extra careful.  He encouraged me to do as much of my shopping as possible online, and to simply avoid leaving the house at all.  It became clear that we could no longer see our friends, go to the park, have a shopping day at the mall, or even go in-store to buy groceries.  My son and I were shut in, isolated from everyone, and quite suddenly it was like our world had gone dark.  In the coming months, we couldn’t even visit with family, we cancelled Halloween and Christmas, and New years.  But before even those things, the biggest change in both our lives was the sudden realization that he would not be returning to school at all.

August brought not only high numbers of infection, but also the seemingly unavoidable fact that I would be homeschooling my son.  The numbers were getting higher, but the Government of Canada was already tired of shelling out the CERB payment and it was becoming clear that businesses were expected to reopen and children were expected to return to school as if nothing was wrong.  Though the Government was preaching safety, their reopening plan felt very flawed, and by this point I was terrified of anyone in my family getting sick.  I didn’t want to expose my little boy to a virus that would almost certainly kill him, being an asthmatic child, and having a history of being sickly.

I contacted the school in the final weeks of August to ask them what their options were, regarding Covid, and if, like other schools, they were offering some sort of remote learning.  The school informed us that remote learning was reserved for children who were ill and had a doctor’s note, but since I was not leaving the house to get said note, we would not be able to provide this.  I simply decided the best course of action would be to prepare for homeschooling.  I had no idea how to do this, since I had decided some 15 years previous to simply not do it, and I didn’t have a clue where to begin.  Searching up as much information as I could, I found out that registering your child with the government as “homeschooled” was a good first step, so I did that.  I also researched some programs online that would offer curriculum-based education and some books for children in my son’s grade.  

I learned that there is virtually no support, outside of the odd website here and there with a handful of basic assignments or worksheets, for parents who homeschool.  The curriculum was confusing and I had no friends who homeshooled so I didn’t have anyone to ask.  There was no simple answer.  I literally went into this with very little planning, and no idea what the hell I was doing.  I bought a workbook on Amazon and paid for a couple of programs.  At the time, I felt like I had done everything in my power to prepare my son for a successful grade 1 year, and initially still believed that we would return to school within a couple of months.  The “flatten the curve” ideal was nice, and I clung to it, like a drowning person to a life preserver.  For a third time, I was wrong.

By December, we were already running out of work to do, I was out hundreds of dollars for paper, ink, supplies, books, and programs, and I was hitting a wall.  The holidays put me in a terrible place, mentally and emotionally, and I crashed.  I had a breakdown and struggled to hold on to the motivation to continue teaching my son at home.  Though we were still spending the week doing schoolwork, it really felt like we spent most of our days distracted, watching TV, going for short walks, and playing video games.  Lunch break had stretched over those few months from 30 minutes into several hours, some days, and often I would just declare the day dead, and give up.  My son’s motivation was also waning, despite his young age, he simply didn’t have much interest in writing a journal entry or playing one of the learning games I was shelling out a monthly fee for.  

At one point, I decided we would take a month off to enjoy a nice long break, and hit the books hard when we came back.  Our recommencing was soft and bleak, to no surprise.  Even though the work was interesting and full of information, the book was colourful and fun, even though I added a mandatory “Hump Day, Fun Day” each week where we would do a craft or have a scavenger hunt, even though my son’s work was good and showed he was learning--we were just tired.  We were tired of staying home, we were tired of never seeing any of our friends or family, we were tired of just doing the same crap over and over again everyday.  It had become monotonous and exhausting for either of us to keep it up.

By February, we had become resigned to our task and were doing the work involved, and were maybe feeling a bit better, but we weren’t any more enthusiastic about it.  We had finished most of the workbook and were practically spending the whole day reading.  The truth is, my son already has most of the grade 1 skills laid out in the curriculum, so teaching him really wasn’t even difficult.  But by this point, I had accepted that homeschooling, while possible, was not my skillset and I had no intention of continuing this into 2022.  As an old dog, learning this new trick was too difficult.  Even with Covid raging, as it still is now, in March, I have made the difficult decision to go back to an almost-normal life.

Discussing this with my son proved frightening to him, but I told him that the cases in our country really don’t show a lot of little kids getting terribly sick and that I really didn’t think it was a risk for him.  I also decided that part of the issue is the fact that I have never been well-suited to being a stay at home mom, which I have now been doing against my better judgement for most of 7 years.  My son is very attached to me, and I love that, but it was time for him to discover other people and places a while ago, and realizing that Covid is deterring him (and myself) from living a normal life has been a big pill to swallow.  While I still have a great appreciation and understanding of how dangerous this virus is, I decided that my son is returning to school for grade 2 in the fall, and I will be returning to work.  

In the meantime, we are taking small steps to increase our exposure to the world.  We have been isolated for so long that even a simple walk around the block sometimes has us feeling stuffy and unwell the next day, and we have to retrain our immune systems not to overreact to everything outside of our house.  We have resumed seeing one friend and several family members, despite restrictions.  I’m sure some people will consider this inappropriate, and I understand that.  But after everything that has happened over the following year, including several deadly events and a case of Covid for my 87 year old grandmother (whom I could not see or even speak to), I am not losing anymore time with my family.  I am not jumping in with both feet and eyes closed, I am taking careful steps to ensure safety and I am being cautious, still wearing a mask and socially distancing.  But I have decided that this life of loneliness is not okay long-term for me or my son, and I have no intention of living like a hermit crab for the rest of my life, and my son having no friends or outside connections going into his next years of life.  Sorry, but not sorry.

For the first few months, the constant stream of news on my television promised “we will get through this,” and “we will flatten the curve.”  But I have come to the realization that Covid is here to stay.  We didn’t follow the protocols (worldwide) quickly enough to eradicate this illness, and as a result there is no “going back to normal”, we have to accept that this is our “new normal”, as has been stated almost constantly, but I don’t know that everyone is really on the same page as to what that means.  I still see and hear people talking about “when things go back to normal” as if the “new normal” is temporary.  I’m not here writing this shit to convince anyone else, just stating that I am personally decided that I have to go ahead in my own life, and allow my son to go ahead in his, armed with the idea that things will never be like they were before, and that trying to fight this the way we were doing, by literally never seeing anyone or going anywhere, was a great solution for a while and now it’s not.

In closing, I am hopeful of my future, I have plans I want to put into action and I am hoping we are not going to be permanently inconvenienced by Covid, but ultimately, I can’t wait to start living my life again, even with the mask and sanitizer glued to me at all times.  I intend to enjoy the rest of this year, even in small amounts, and I hope everyone else stays safe and does the same.  Understanding that Covid will not be gone anytime soon, even with this vaccine, we have to learn to live in this new life.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Why New Restaurants Are Still, Somehow, Opening During the Pandemic

Inside Panino Taglio | Stephanie Forrer

Saddled with debt, mortgages, and payroll, some owners have no choice but to open a new restaurant in the midst of COVID-19

Across the country, the novel coronavirus has closed countless restaurants, temporarily or permanently. Yet, even as the future for food businesses looks dire and restaurants struggle to attain financial support from Congress, new restaurants are opening their doors against economic headwinds. Established names and first-time owners are untangling health and safety requirements and navigating the murky ethical waters of employing staff, all to offer bagels, Vietnamese coffee, Korean fine dining, cheese boards, and pizza to home diners and frontline workers.

“Some people think we’re crazy to have our opening day right now,” says Chen Dien of Coffeeholic House in Seattle. Along with his wife Trang Cao, Dien opened the cafe, which specializes in brewing with Vietnamese slow-drip phin filters, for takeout only on March 17, one day after Seattle closed restaurants for dine-in service. The couple closed the cafe soon after, for two weeks, as the situation grew worse. But after Gov. Jay Inslee extended the stay-at-home order until May 4, they decided to reopen for good, without seating and with guide markers on the floor to ensure social distancing.

“It’s been our dream for many years to open our own coffee shop,” Dien explains. They simply couldn’t let the business die, and remaining closed wasn’t an option. “It’s very hard for a small business like ours to shut down for a few months and not do anything. We still have bills to pay.” Many others are in a similar spot, opening in the middle of stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures because they had little choice.

Amalia Litsa and Joshua Adrian, co-owners of the new Dear Diary Coffeehouse in Austin, decided to open their cafe for takeout on April 4, weeks after the city ordered restaurants closed on March 17. “It’s not like a business just pops up out of nowhere,” Litsa says. “Business loans, personal capital, building out a space for nine months — the business existed well before the brick-and-mortar part of it did.” The partners opened, even while other restaurants around town were closing, partly because they lacked the funds to fully ride out the storm. “No matter what, we’re going to operate at a loss, but even a weak revenue stream would slow that loss,” Litsa says. “It’s our best chance of surviving at all.”

Courtesy Coffeeholic House

Customers wait at Coffeeholic House

Courtesy Coffeeholic House

Pick-up orders at Coffeeholic House

Even restaurant groups, which could concentrate resources and staff at existing businesses, have decided it sometimes makes more economic sense to add another venue to their rosters. Brendan McGill, chef and owner of Hitchcock in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and sister restaurants in Seattle, had been leasing a space in the Georgetown neighborhood for seven years before soft opening Panino Taglio on March 21. The cafe, an extension of his downtown restaurant Bar Taglio, offers take-and-bake pizzas alongside Italian pantry items.

“I had been paying for an empty space, so I figured doing some business in there, especially if it made sense in relation to the other businesses, why not activate it?” McGill says. The team limited expenses as much as possible for the low-lift venture. McGill borrowed equipment from a friend’s warehouse during build-out and employed a delivery person in-house to avoid paying fees to delivery platforms. McGill adds, “The landscape could change constantly as we attempt it, but that’s not much different from the restaurant business anyway.”

Without foot traffic, new business owners must rely (even more than usual) on social and digital media to spread the word about opening. “There’s a lot of noise on social right now, but everyone is just at home glued to their phones,” McGill says. “I think there’s good reach right now.” He points out it’s tricky to thread the needle on messaging, encouraging people to pick up food in person while government and health authorities are telling people to stay home. But Panino Taglio offers CSA boxes, wine, prepared items, and pantry goods all in one place, letting shoppers stock up on all their needs in one fell swoop. “We’re just trying to encourage people to do it from a local foods company rather than one of the big chains,” McGill says.

“We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone.”

Andrew Dana, co-owner of Call Your Mother in D.C., actually wanted to keep things quiet while opening a second location of the bagel shop in Capitol Hill on April 15. “This isn’t the opening where you want tons and tons of people there. You want it to feel safe,” he says. But word spread quickly through the neighborhood listservs and from there to local media. “Every food blog in the city has picked up on it because it’s not like there are a lot of other restaurants opening.” To temper the hype and keep the operation safe, he has been cutting off orders after 1,600 bagels, often the day before people can even pick up.

Beautiful Rind, a specialty cheese cafe in Chicago, passed all of its inspections on March 19, the day before Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order. Cheesemonger Randall Felts officially opened his business on April 10, even as work crews continued touch-ups on the space. Felts originally planned to service the local community during the first year of business, then launch digital offerings in year two to expand customer reach. Now he says his local customers are digital too, so he’s accelerating his web plans.

Beautiful Rind debuted by offering digital classes: Felts delivers all the cheese boards himself (“it’s actually how I started in the restaurant industry, delivering sandwiches,” he says, noting how he’s come full circle), then returns to the shop to lead customers through a tasting. “The big challenge for me right now as a business owner is quickly learning how to be a website manager or a webinar host,” Felts says, though he admits it’s not too different from other ways he’s had to pivot as a business owner — he’s a pretty good plumber, too.

That scrappy spirit has allowed small businesses like Dear Diary and Coffeeholic to open with little or no staff, delaying hiring until they can consistently afford full staffs. At Dear Diary, Litsa and Adrian are only opening the shop five days a week. The buffer allows either partner to step in if their one barista becomes ill. But for larger operations, payroll often necessitates opening.

On April 10, Corey Lee of three-Michelin-starred Benu in San Francisco launched a preview of the hotly awaited San Ho Won, a Korean concept that was announced last fall. The restaurant was supposed to open this summer, but its recent takeout-only debut, in the form of a set menu, is being orchestrated from the Benu kitchen. Lee tells Eater via email that the business is providing healthcare and a meal program to all furloughed employees across his restaurant empire, as well as financial aid to international workers on visas who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. “We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone’s situation for an unknown period of time,” he says. Opening San Ho Won now as a takeout concept gives staff a chance to perfect recipes for the forthcoming restaurant, and allows Lee to funnel money directly to his workers.

Dana similarly had staff in mind when he moved ahead with opening a second Call Your Mother. While the original location is only doing 10 percent less retail business at the moment, he says, the business makes almost half its revenue from farmers markets and catering, which have dried up completely. The shop hasn’t cut employee salaries at all, though, so they needed the second location to make up the difference in revenue.

Before opening the second location, Dana sent out a survey to the team asking employees how they got to work, whether they lived with high-risk individuals, and whether they wanted to work at all. The responses informed managers’ decision to open and allowed them to identify employees who could safely walk to the new location rather than taking public transit to the original shop. They’re also paying some employees to work from home, helping maintain the new online ordering system and providing customer support over the phone.

New business owners may be excited about big plans for the future, but for now they too must adjust expectations. “There’s a lot of good stuff we want to launch, but we’re waiting for the best timing,” Dien says, though he remains optimistic. “We’ve been waiting for more than a year already, so it’s okay to wait for a little bit more.” In the summer, he hopes Coffeeholic can offer more drinks, like watermelon juice, coconut coffee, and lychee or passion fruit tea.

Both the original Call Your Mother shop and the new one are limiting offerings to streamline operations for reduced kitchen staff: The new location only offers whole bagels with cream cheese. Felts also cut down offerings, and he had to pivot to feature domestic cheese and charcuterie as the pandemic affected international trade with European suppliers. “We’ve been able to transition more to those guys and spread the love as best we can,” he says. Felts has also worked to incorporate small, local partners, offering online pairing classes featuring beer and cider makers.

Randall Felts

Randall Felts leading a digital cheese tasting

The Dear Diary menu reflects shifting supply in Austin, too. “There didn’t used to be this much demand for growlers,” Litsa explains, “but now every coffee shop in town is offering cold brew growlers, so they’re really hard to get from any distributor.” She and Adrian looked for alternative packaging on Amazon and came upon plastic honey bears, popular among home beekeepers. They now package cold brew in 22-ounce bears and to-go syrups in 8-ounce versions.

As fellow coffee shops have closed, though, Litsa has also noticed the opposite problem: local bakeries and caterers with nowhere to sell their goods. Rather than spread small orders between a lot of suppliers, Litsa has decided to concentrate on developing quality relationships through substantial orders from a select few partners.

Litsa argues that new restaurants are particularly flexible to the changing situation. “In a way we’re blessed by having less business because it gives us more time to wrap our heads around what to do next and we can experiment without pissing off as many people,” she says. “By the time we have more business, either because corona has lifted or our economy has morphed, we’ll be really frickin’ good at what we do.”

Litsa brought her sewing machine to the cafe to produce masks during slow hours; she sells the masks alongside coffee. There are plans for goodie boxes of art supplies and postcards. “Corona is indefinite. It could be a year. It could be two years. It could be the economy is forever changed. We just need to accept that now and adapt,” Litsa says. “We’re bleeding over the edges of a strict coffee shop definition.”

Even as they work constantly to adapt to the rapidly changing situation, many argue their businesses are positioned to provide hope and positive energy, both in demand as much as food. “It’s a nice reminder that there’s something to look forward to,” Lee says of the pop-up, “instead of offering altered versions of existing concepts and being reminded just how much our lives have been ruptured by this pandemic.”

That positivity flows in all directions. Many owners are passing along that goodwill through charity work, sending food and drinks to hospital workers or those in need. Customers also provide owners with the necessary confidence to open and stay open.

“I know I seem a little crazy to be opening a restaurant right now,” Felts says. “But when people come in and thank me for doing that and they’re excited to see the food, to get some cheese and just have a little happiness, it makes it totally worth it.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2zLof0z https://ift.tt/2y63kF4

Inside Panino Taglio | Stephanie Forrer

Saddled with debt, mortgages, and payroll, some owners have no choice but to open a new restaurant in the midst of COVID-19

Across the country, the novel coronavirus has closed countless restaurants, temporarily or permanently. Yet, even as the future for food businesses looks dire and restaurants struggle to attain financial support from Congress, new restaurants are opening their doors against economic headwinds. Established names and first-time owners are untangling health and safety requirements and navigating the murky ethical waters of employing staff, all to offer bagels, Vietnamese coffee, Korean fine dining, cheese boards, and pizza to home diners and frontline workers.

“Some people think we’re crazy to have our opening day right now,” says Chen Dien of Coffeeholic House in Seattle. Along with his wife Trang Cao, Dien opened the cafe, which specializes in brewing with Vietnamese slow-drip phin filters, for takeout only on March 17, one day after Seattle closed restaurants for dine-in service. The couple closed the cafe soon after, for two weeks, as the situation grew worse. But after Gov. Jay Inslee extended the stay-at-home order until May 4, they decided to reopen for good, without seating and with guide markers on the floor to ensure social distancing.

“It’s been our dream for many years to open our own coffee shop,” Dien explains. They simply couldn’t let the business die, and remaining closed wasn’t an option. “It’s very hard for a small business like ours to shut down for a few months and not do anything. We still have bills to pay.” Many others are in a similar spot, opening in the middle of stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures because they had little choice.

Amalia Litsa and Joshua Adrian, co-owners of the new Dear Diary Coffeehouse in Austin, decided to open their cafe for takeout on April 4, weeks after the city ordered restaurants closed on March 17. “It’s not like a business just pops up out of nowhere,” Litsa says. “Business loans, personal capital, building out a space for nine months — the business existed well before the brick-and-mortar part of it did.” The partners opened, even while other restaurants around town were closing, partly because they lacked the funds to fully ride out the storm. “No matter what, we’re going to operate at a loss, but even a weak revenue stream would slow that loss,” Litsa says. “It’s our best chance of surviving at all.”

Courtesy Coffeeholic House

Customers wait at Coffeeholic House

Courtesy Coffeeholic House

Pick-up orders at Coffeeholic House

Even restaurant groups, which could concentrate resources and staff at existing businesses, have decided it sometimes makes more economic sense to add another venue to their rosters. Brendan McGill, chef and owner of Hitchcock in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and sister restaurants in Seattle, had been leasing a space in the Georgetown neighborhood for seven years before soft opening Panino Taglio on March 21. The cafe, an extension of his downtown restaurant Bar Taglio, offers take-and-bake pizzas alongside Italian pantry items.

“I had been paying for an empty space, so I figured doing some business in there, especially if it made sense in relation to the other businesses, why not activate it?” McGill says. The team limited expenses as much as possible for the low-lift venture. McGill borrowed equipment from a friend’s warehouse during build-out and employed a delivery person in-house to avoid paying fees to delivery platforms. McGill adds, “The landscape could change constantly as we attempt it, but that’s not much different from the restaurant business anyway.”

Without foot traffic, new business owners must rely (even more than usual) on social and digital media to spread the word about opening. “There’s a lot of noise on social right now, but everyone is just at home glued to their phones,” McGill says. “I think there’s good reach right now.” He points out it’s tricky to thread the needle on messaging, encouraging people to pick up food in person while government and health authorities are telling people to stay home. But Panino Taglio offers CSA boxes, wine, prepared items, and pantry goods all in one place, letting shoppers stock up on all their needs in one fell swoop. “We’re just trying to encourage people to do it from a local foods company rather than one of the big chains,” McGill says.

“We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone.”

Andrew Dana, co-owner of Call Your Mother in D.C., actually wanted to keep things quiet while opening a second location of the bagel shop in Capitol Hill on April 15. “This isn’t the opening where you want tons and tons of people there. You want it to feel safe,” he says. But word spread quickly through the neighborhood listservs and from there to local media. “Every food blog in the city has picked up on it because it’s not like there are a lot of other restaurants opening.” To temper the hype and keep the operation safe, he has been cutting off orders after 1,600 bagels, often the day before people can even pick up.

Beautiful Rind, a specialty cheese cafe in Chicago, passed all of its inspections on March 19, the day before Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order. Cheesemonger Randall Felts officially opened his business on April 10, even as work crews continued touch-ups on the space. Felts originally planned to service the local community during the first year of business, then launch digital offerings in year two to expand customer reach. Now he says his local customers are digital too, so he’s accelerating his web plans.

Beautiful Rind debuted by offering digital classes: Felts delivers all the cheese boards himself (“it’s actually how I started in the restaurant industry, delivering sandwiches,” he says, noting how he’s come full circle), then returns to the shop to lead customers through a tasting. “The big challenge for me right now as a business owner is quickly learning how to be a website manager or a webinar host,” Felts says, though he admits it’s not too different from other ways he’s had to pivot as a business owner — he’s a pretty good plumber, too.

That scrappy spirit has allowed small businesses like Dear Diary and Coffeeholic to open with little or no staff, delaying hiring until they can consistently afford full staffs. At Dear Diary, Litsa and Adrian are only opening the shop five days a week. The buffer allows either partner to step in if their one barista becomes ill. But for larger operations, payroll often necessitates opening.

On April 10, Corey Lee of three-Michelin-starred Benu in San Francisco launched a preview of the hotly awaited San Ho Won, a Korean concept that was announced last fall. The restaurant was supposed to open this summer, but its recent takeout-only debut, in the form of a set menu, is being orchestrated from the Benu kitchen. Lee tells Eater via email that the business is providing healthcare and a meal program to all furloughed employees across his restaurant empire, as well as financial aid to international workers on visas who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. “We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone’s situation for an unknown period of time,” he says. Opening San Ho Won now as a takeout concept gives staff a chance to perfect recipes for the forthcoming restaurant, and allows Lee to funnel money directly to his workers.

Dana similarly had staff in mind when he moved ahead with opening a second Call Your Mother. While the original location is only doing 10 percent less retail business at the moment, he says, the business makes almost half its revenue from farmers markets and catering, which have dried up completely. The shop hasn’t cut employee salaries at all, though, so they needed the second location to make up the difference in revenue.

Before opening the second location, Dana sent out a survey to the team asking employees how they got to work, whether they lived with high-risk individuals, and whether they wanted to work at all. The responses informed managers’ decision to open and allowed them to identify employees who could safely walk to the new location rather than taking public transit to the original shop. They’re also paying some employees to work from home, helping maintain the new online ordering system and providing customer support over the phone.

New business owners may be excited about big plans for the future, but for now they too must adjust expectations. “There’s a lot of good stuff we want to launch, but we’re waiting for the best timing,” Dien says, though he remains optimistic. “We’ve been waiting for more than a year already, so it’s okay to wait for a little bit more.” In the summer, he hopes Coffeeholic can offer more drinks, like watermelon juice, coconut coffee, and lychee or passion fruit tea.

Both the original Call Your Mother shop and the new one are limiting offerings to streamline operations for reduced kitchen staff: The new location only offers whole bagels with cream cheese. Felts also cut down offerings, and he had to pivot to feature domestic cheese and charcuterie as the pandemic affected international trade with European suppliers. “We’ve been able to transition more to those guys and spread the love as best we can,” he says. Felts has also worked to incorporate small, local partners, offering online pairing classes featuring beer and cider makers.

Randall Felts

Randall Felts leading a digital cheese tasting

The Dear Diary menu reflects shifting supply in Austin, too. “There didn’t used to be this much demand for growlers,” Litsa explains, “but now every coffee shop in town is offering cold brew growlers, so they’re really hard to get from any distributor.” She and Adrian looked for alternative packaging on Amazon and came upon plastic honey bears, popular among home beekeepers. They now package cold brew in 22-ounce bears and to-go syrups in 8-ounce versions.

As fellow coffee shops have closed, though, Litsa has also noticed the opposite problem: local bakeries and caterers with nowhere to sell their goods. Rather than spread small orders between a lot of suppliers, Litsa has decided to concentrate on developing quality relationships through substantial orders from a select few partners.

Litsa argues that new restaurants are particularly flexible to the changing situation. “In a way we’re blessed by having less business because it gives us more time to wrap our heads around what to do next and we can experiment without pissing off as many people,” she says. “By the time we have more business, either because corona has lifted or our economy has morphed, we’ll be really frickin’ good at what we do.”

Litsa brought her sewing machine to the cafe to produce masks during slow hours; she sells the masks alongside coffee. There are plans for goodie boxes of art supplies and postcards. “Corona is indefinite. It could be a year. It could be two years. It could be the economy is forever changed. We just need to accept that now and adapt,” Litsa says. “We’re bleeding over the edges of a strict coffee shop definition.”

Even as they work constantly to adapt to the rapidly changing situation, many argue their businesses are positioned to provide hope and positive energy, both in demand as much as food. “It’s a nice reminder that there’s something to look forward to,” Lee says of the pop-up, “instead of offering altered versions of existing concepts and being reminded just how much our lives have been ruptured by this pandemic.”

That positivity flows in all directions. Many owners are passing along that goodwill through charity work, sending food and drinks to hospital workers or those in need. Customers also provide owners with the necessary confidence to open and stay open.

“I know I seem a little crazy to be opening a restaurant right now,” Felts says. “But when people come in and thank me for doing that and they’re excited to see the food, to get some cheese and just have a little happiness, it makes it totally worth it.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2zLof0z via Blogger https://ift.tt/3bS8zqj

[cupnoodle-queen]

CHASING SUNS: Chapter 13 Blame

2,230 words THE PLOT THICKENS. dun dun dunnnn Tagging some peeps: @blindbae​ @nifwrites​ @thegoddesseos​ @themissimmortal​

Cam gripped the steering wheel with damp hands, trailing behind Gladio’s Jeep on the drive back to HQ. Her entire body was feeling the after effects of their connection, sparks on her skin and her brain going a mile a minute, yet inside her gut she felt ill. Dave wanted to speak with her, and the way Gladio just, looked away from her….What happened?

Her wipers were struggling to keep up with clearing the rain, the downpour coming in sheets and a low rumble of thunder reverberated through the frame of the vehicle. As they entered the first winding turn before the tunnel, Cam could just make out the rough patches of dirt and terrain uplifted from the behemoth, ominous flashbacks rapid firing through her mind. She still couldn’t believe she’d assisted in downing the beast, surprised at how quickly the plan to blind it lightbulbed in her mind. How she managed to pull it off on the other hand, she couldn’t explain.

Sure she’d trained with Gladio and Greyson plenty, but something gnawed at her sense of reason. She’d overheard the hushed whispers of other hunters and veterans, how she was most likely feigning the stroke of greatness persona, coming from nothing and rubbing shoulders with the higher ranks in no time flat. Someone who’d been mediocre at best in physical education throughout high school, someone who hadn’t touched a firearm before several short weeks ago…

As they exited the tunnel and approached HQ territory, Gladio slowed down his Jeep faster than Cam anticipated and she broke hard, though immediately understood the reason for his abrupt halt; a thick puddle of blood was accumulating outside the tunnel, dripping from above where the behemoth corpse was slung by the edge of the rock shelf. An iron tang hit the back of her throat; she could smell it. Great. They’d probably called a meeting to bump priority of getting rid of the body…

They pulled up beside the main office and headed inside, one after the other without another word. It was a full house; Greyson, Prompto and Cor were seated against the far wall, Dave was pacing the room with a look of contempt on his typically relaxed face. Two of the highest ranking hunters nodded to greet them as they entered, while off in the furthest corner Steph stood, fixated on her phone, thumbs tapping the screen at lightning speed.

“Alright, she’s here,” Dave announced and every head in the room rose to look at Cam. She felt microscopic in seconds flat, leaning against the wall opposite the door, Gladio behind her. What did he mean, ‘she’s here’…

“Got a couple things to go over before the main topic of this meeting,” Dave continued, grabbing a folder from the metal desk and flipping through the paperwork. “That behemoth was no coincidence; infrared readings have doubled since the scout’s last reports from Sunday, only five days ago. We think given that it was headed due northwest when Greyson and Co happened upon it, there’s a high chance it was attracted to the infrared energy being omitted nearby.”

“How are the sightings in the area, boss?” one of the veteran hunters asked, looking over Dave’s shoulder to read the report.

Dave rubbed his forehead. “Rising. Snipers use to only hold two clips of ammo per shift, but recently they’ve been requesting double, and what’s even more concerning is just how close they’re reaching the outskirts of HQ.” He sighed, leaning against a support beam. “Might need to invest in more spotlights-”

“It’s not in the budget,” Steph interjected, all heads whipping in her direction at the back of the room. Her expression was blank. “And you know we can’t work it in as well. I’ve scoured it top to bottom and pinched enough pennies to be certain of that.”

Dave’s eyes flicked to Cam and her gut cramped. “Which brings me to the reason for our meeting. Reynolds?”

Her head snapped up, undivided attention. “Yes?”

“Where were you at approximately 4:35 this afternoon?”

Cam frowned, knitting her dark eyebrows in confusion. “Beg pardon, sir?”

“Answer the question, Reynolds,” Cor’s voice was like a serrated blade across her face.

“I was…” She thought back to it, around that time she was - “in the showers.”

Dave eyed her suspiciously until she shrugged her shoulders. He backed up towards a flat cabinet, sliding the door open to reveal a flat screen TV, a grid of closed-circuit feeds on display in small boxes. He cycled through some views with the remote until he landed on a specific one, enlarging the view, and Cam recognized it as the side wall adjacent to the back entrance of the armory...

She tensed, realizing what everyone was about to witness. Without forethought Cam’s head snapped back to Steph, but she was focused intently on the television, expression indecipherable.

Cam turned back in time to see a pre-recorded version of herself, crouched and sneaking behind the back of the armory. Much to her displeasure however, the angle of the camera only captured the side of the building, not the back, so when Cam’s recorded form ducked behind the armory she was in the blind spot.

She knew what would happen next, how a few seconds later she’d come tiptoeing back the same way she came, pocketing her cell phone...Except, she didn’t. Nearly a minute went by of zero activity on the monitor. There was no way Cam had spent that long behind the armory; She’d followed Steph and the initiate, saw them through the gap in the door, snapped some pics, and left. The entire series of events may have taken twenty seconds at best…

Also, why hadn’t they shown…”Dave,” Cam interrupted their viewing and he paused playback, “Can you rewind to a few seconds before I show up on screen?”

Wordlessly, he fulfilled her request and hit play about a minute before Cam’s appearance. Nothing, and then...Cam sneaking into view.

What the hell? “Okay, something’s not right-”

“Why’d you break into the armory, Reynolds?” Dave’s voice was firm and low, avoiding eye contact; authoritative, but lacking confidence.

Cam stepped away from the wall, taking a few strides forward. “That footage is all wrong, I-I didn’t go back there of my own volition.”

“Then explain,” Cor rose from his seat, pacing around to Cam, “what sent you back there in the first place.”

“I-I saw-”

Steph’s arms flung around the initiate’s neck, the cream and roses of her bare breasts jostling with his thrusts as he pistioned in and out of her, his bare ass flexing with the push of his hips. Their labored breathing with the speed of their fucking-

“...something.”

Her mouth dropped a fraction, nerves getting the better of her composure. She dared a glance at Steph, who to Cam’s surprise remained the pinnacle of ease, twirling a lock of crimson hair between long, slender fingers.

It drove Cam insane. She either didn’t know, or didn’t care that she was about to be exposed. She was hyper-aware of Gladio standing barely two feet behind her. Alright then, she thought to herself, pulling out her phone. “Look, I have proof that I...wasn’t alone. Just let me find-”

The pictures of Steph weren’t showing up in her gallery. They were gone.

“Wait, what the hell?” She tried with trembling hands to close the application and reopen it, hoping with despair that it was...Nope, not a glitch. The photos had disappeared.

Cam’s heart hit the back of her throat and double-timed as she caught a glimpse of Steph standing in the back of the room, one corner of her mouth barely turned up into a snide smirk.

Something happened to Cam then, that she never experienced before in twenty five years of life. For two  seconds of unwarranted eternity, her vision tinted red. Undiluted fury in its purest form.

Anger, absolute.

Behind her Gladio took a step back, startled and uncertain as to how he just felt that.

Cam regained her sobriety, sighing. “I had pictures on my phone, however it seems they’ve been deleted.” She gritted her teeth. The bitch must have taken her phone while she was in the shower-

“Well unfortunately, Reynolds,” The Marshal was holding back his full potential for a raised voice, “the entirety of gil in the retain cash was just stolen, approximately two grand in total.” He stopped in front of Cam, his head cocked to the side. “Until otherwise proven innocent, I have no choice but to suspend you from active hunter status. Had we not been in dire need of personnel we’d be having a different conversation altogether. Turn in your weapons tonight, we’ll get you started on a job tomorrow-”

“That’s not fair, I didn’t-”

“Reynolds,” Dave’s voice was restrained. “No one else went back there tonight except you. Camera doesn’t lie.”

Altered recordings do, Cam thought to herself. She exhaled in defeat. No use fighting it for now, evidently Steph had gone to extensive lengths to cover up her little rendezvous with the rookie hunter; She’d just have to find another means of proving her guilt. “Whatever, then. Fine. Can I go?”

A long pause, silence that made the air feel thick. Someone coughed, and then, “Meeting adjourned.”

The attendees rose, but as they began to file out of the office Dave spoke up. “Actually, Greyson and Steph, stick back for a few minutes...”

Cam’s hands balled into fists and she made for the barracks to collect her weapons. It wasn’t right, but she had to roll with the punches on this. There had to be a way she could gain access to the recordings, or perhaps there was a witness around that could provide a statement...

A hand grabbed her arm and swung her around to face the opposite direction. It was Gladio. “Talk to me.”

“What do you want me to say?” her sun was humming below her skin. Try as she did to deny it, she liked looking at him.

He frowned though his eyes were warm. “What happened?”

“I didn’t break into the armory, if that’s where you’re going with this.” Cam’s voice had a grit to it, though she tried to be sincere...She could tell him, right? What she saw? Would he react well to it or get upset? Given the unknown state of their relationship (could it even be called that? The questions were unyielding tonight) She couldn’t be certain, instead she tiptoed at the precipice and brushed over what occurred. “I saw...Steph, inside.”

Gladio’s eyebrows jumped a bit. “In the armory? That’s impossible. She’s not that kind of person.”

“Are you sure?” Cam took an involuntary step towards him, halting mid second. “Gladio, I-I know what I saw. Honest to Astrals, I saw her…”

He exhaled a deep breath, checked his six and took Cam’s hand leading her inside the barracks. It was too early for anyone to be asleep so he knew they’d have some privacy. Cam’s heart hammered when he pulled her into the dark foyer of the sleeping quarters. After ensuring they were alone he whispered, the tenor in his voice like an engine. “Look, I don’t know what happened but...just, don’t mess around with her. She’s got a mean streak a mile wide and gets what she wants, no matter what the cost.”

“Why go out with her in the first place, then?” Cam whispered back, though instantly regretted her abrasive tone. He was still holding her hand; She had no intention of letting go at that moment. “I mean, if she’s not that nice of a person...”

Gladio pulled Cam close, their torsos touching and her marking reacted with renewed heat. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, his facial hair brushing her head in a comforting way before he wrapped his arms around her. “I did what I had to...to get by.”

Confusion clawed at her sense of reason and she wanted to question his response but he was surrounding her, radiating warmth and intoxicating allure. They stood still for countless seconds, their breathing synched and hearts linked, both overwhelmed at the effects of one another’s proximity. Two addicts tapped at the vein; Two ships that sailed in the night for far too long.

Gladio’s hand stroked her jaw line and pulled her face upwards, planting the softest kiss of a lifetime on Cam’s lips. With barely any pressure and only the feel of his mouth against hers, melding between them in perfect symmetry and balance, they gave each other what the other had desperately needed all their life without being aware of doing so.

Cam’s phone buzzed abruptly and Gladio pulled away, much sooner than both of them had anticipated so she could answer. She didn't recognize the number.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Gladio slipped past her and back outside, and just like that she was alone.

Cam answered the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, Cam?” A young female’s voice greeted her, one Cam couldn’t place to a face.

“Yes, this is she. Who’s this?”

“It’s Iris,” she replied, her voice unnaturally formal. “I got your number from Prompto, I hope that’s okay.”

Cam was surprised to hear from her. “No, that’s alright. Is there something you need?”

She hesitated, but continued after some last minute deliberation.

“Yes. I have a big favor to ask.”

[instantdeerlover]

Why New Restaurants Are Still, Somehow, Opening During the Pandemic added to Google Docs

Why New Restaurants Are Still, Somehow, Opening During the Pandemic

 Inside Panino Taglio | Stephanie Forrer

Saddled with debt, mortgages, and payroll, some owners have no choice but to open a new restaurant in the midst of COVID-19

Across the country, the novel coronavirus has closed countless restaurants, temporarily or permanently. Yet, even as the future for food businesses looks dire and restaurants struggle to attain financial support from Congress, new restaurants are opening their doors against economic headwinds. Established names and first-time owners are untangling health and safety requirements and navigating the murky ethical waters of employing staff, all to offer bagels, Vietnamese coffee, Korean fine dining, cheese boards, and pizza to home diners and frontline workers.

“Some people think we’re crazy to have our opening day right now,” says Chen Dien of Coffeeholic House in Seattle. Along with his wife Trang Cao, Dien opened the cafe, which specializes in brewing with Vietnamese slow-drip phin filters, for takeout only on March 17, one day after Seattle closed restaurants for dine-in service. The couple closed the cafe soon after, for two weeks, as the situation grew worse. But after Gov. Jay Inslee extended the stay-at-home order until May 4, they decided to reopen for good, without seating and with guide markers on the floor to ensure social distancing.

“It’s been our dream for many years to open our own coffee shop,” Dien explains. They simply couldn’t let the business die, and remaining closed wasn’t an option. “It’s very hard for a small business like ours to shut down for a few months and not do anything. We still have bills to pay.” Many others are in a similar spot, opening in the middle of stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures because they had little choice.

Amalia Litsa and Joshua Adrian, co-owners of the new Dear Diary Coffeehouse in Austin, decided to open their cafe for takeout on April 4, weeks after the city ordered restaurants closed on March 17. “It’s not like a business just pops up out of nowhere,” Litsa says. “Business loans, personal capital, building out a space for nine months — the business existed well before the brick-and-mortar part of it did.” The partners opened, even while other restaurants around town were closing, partly because they lacked the funds to fully ride out the storm. “No matter what, we’re going to operate at a loss, but even a weak revenue stream would slow that loss,” Litsa says. “It’s our best chance of surviving at all.”

 Courtesy Coffeeholic House Customers wait at Coffeeholic House  Courtesy Coffeeholic House Pick-up orders at Coffeeholic House

Even restaurant groups, which could concentrate resources and staff at existing businesses, have decided it sometimes makes more economic sense to add another venue to their rosters. Brendan McGill, chef and owner of Hitchcock in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and sister restaurants in Seattle, had been leasing a space in the Georgetown neighborhood for seven years before soft opening Panino Taglio on March 21. The cafe, an extension of his downtown restaurant Bar Taglio, offers take-and-bake pizzas alongside Italian pantry items.

“I had been paying for an empty space, so I figured doing some business in there, especially if it made sense in relation to the other businesses, why not activate it?” McGill says. The team limited expenses as much as possible for the low-lift venture. McGill borrowed equipment from a friend’s warehouse during build-out and employed a delivery person in-house to avoid paying fees to delivery platforms. McGill adds, “The landscape could change constantly as we attempt it, but that’s not much different from the restaurant business anyway.”

Without foot traffic, new business owners must rely (even more than usual) on social and digital media to spread the word about opening. “There’s a lot of noise on social right now, but everyone is just at home glued to their phones,” McGill says. “I think there’s good reach right now.” He points out it’s tricky to thread the needle on messaging, encouraging people to pick up food in person while government and health authorities are telling people to stay home. But Panino Taglio offers CSA boxes, wine, prepared items, and pantry goods all in one place, letting shoppers stock up on all their needs in one fell swoop. “We’re just trying to encourage people to do it from a local foods company rather than one of the big chains,” McGill says.

“We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone.”

Andrew Dana, co-owner of Call Your Mother in D.C., actually wanted to keep things quiet while opening a second location of the bagel shop in Capitol Hill on April 15. “This isn’t the opening where you want tons and tons of people there. You want it to feel safe,” he says. But word spread quickly through the neighborhood listservs and from there to local media. “Every food blog in the city has picked up on it because it’s not like there are a lot of other restaurants opening.” To temper the hype and keep the operation safe, he has been cutting off orders after 1,600 bagels, often the day before people can even pick up.

Beautiful Rind, a specialty cheese cafe in Chicago, passed all of its inspections on March 19, the day before Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order. Cheesemonger Randall Felts officially opened his business on April 10, even as work crews continued touch-ups on the space. Felts originally planned to service the local community during the first year of business, then launch digital offerings in year two to expand customer reach. Now he says his local customers are digital too, so he’s accelerating his web plans.

Beautiful Rind debuted by offering digital classes: Felts delivers all the cheese boards himself (“it’s actually how I started in the restaurant industry, delivering sandwiches,” he says, noting how he’s come full circle), then returns to the shop to lead customers through a tasting. “The big challenge for me right now as a business owner is quickly learning how to be a website manager or a webinar host,” Felts says, though he admits it’s not too different from other ways he’s had to pivot as a business owner — he’s a pretty good plumber, too.

That scrappy spirit has allowed small businesses like Dear Diary and Coffeeholic to open with little or no staff, delaying hiring until they can consistently afford full staffs. At Dear Diary, Litsa and Adrian are only opening the shop five days a week. The buffer allows either partner to step in if their one barista becomes ill. But for larger operations, payroll often necessitates opening.

On April 10, Corey Lee of three-Michelin-starred Benu in San Francisco launched a preview of the hotly awaited San Ho Won, a Korean concept that was announced last fall. The restaurant was supposed to open this summer, but its recent takeout-only debut, in the form of a set menu, is being orchestrated from the Benu kitchen. Lee tells Eater via email that the business is providing healthcare and a meal program to all furloughed employees across his restaurant empire, as well as financial aid to international workers on visas who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. “We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone’s situation for an unknown period of time,” he says. Opening San Ho Won now as a takeout concept gives staff a chance to perfect recipes for the forthcoming restaurant, and allows Lee to funnel money directly to his workers.

Dana similarly had staff in mind when he moved ahead with opening a second Call Your Mother. While the original location is only doing 10 percent less retail business at the moment, he says, the business makes almost half its revenue from farmers markets and catering, which have dried up completely. The shop hasn’t cut employee salaries at all, though, so they needed the second location to make up the difference in revenue.

Before opening the second location, Dana sent out a survey to the team asking employees how they got to work, whether they lived with high-risk individuals, and whether they wanted to work at all. The responses informed managers’ decision to open and allowed them to identify employees who could safely walk to the new location rather than taking public transit to the original shop. They’re also paying some employees to work from home, helping maintain the new online ordering system and providing customer support over the phone.

New business owners may be excited about big plans for the future, but for now they too must adjust expectations. “There’s a lot of good stuff we want to launch, but we’re waiting for the best timing,” Dien says, though he remains optimistic. “We’ve been waiting for more than a year already, so it’s okay to wait for a little bit more.” In the summer, he hopes Coffeeholic can offer more drinks, like watermelon juice, coconut coffee, and lychee or passion fruit tea.

Both the original Call Your Mother shop and the new one are limiting offerings to streamline operations for reduced kitchen staff: The new location only offers whole bagels with cream cheese. Felts also cut down offerings, and he had to pivot to feature domestic cheese and charcuterie as the pandemic affected international trade with European suppliers. “We’ve been able to transition more to those guys and spread the love as best we can,” he says. Felts has also worked to incorporate small, local partners, offering online pairing classes featuring beer and cider makers.

 Randall Felts Randall Felts leading a digital cheese tasting

The Dear Diary menu reflects shifting supply in Austin, too. “There didn’t used to be this much demand for growlers,” Litsa explains, “but now every coffee shop in town is offering cold brew growlers, so they’re really hard to get from any distributor.” She and Adrian looked for alternative packaging on Amazon and came upon plastic honey bears, popular among home beekeepers. They now package cold brew in 22-ounce bears and to-go syrups in 8-ounce versions.

As fellow coffee shops have closed, though, Litsa has also noticed the opposite problem: local bakeries and caterers with nowhere to sell their goods. Rather than spread small orders between a lot of suppliers, Litsa has decided to concentrate on developing quality relationships through substantial orders from a select few partners.

Litsa argues that new restaurants are particularly flexible to the changing situation. “In a way we’re blessed by having less business because it gives us more time to wrap our heads around what to do next and we can experiment without pissing off as many people,” she says. “By the time we have more business, either because corona has lifted or our economy has morphed, we’ll be really frickin’ good at what we do.”

Litsa brought her sewing machine to the cafe to produce masks during slow hours; she sells the masks alongside coffee. There are plans for goodie boxes of art supplies and postcards. “Corona is indefinite. It could be a year. It could be two years. It could be the economy is forever changed. We just need to accept that now and adapt,” Litsa says. “We’re bleeding over the edges of a strict coffee shop definition.”

Even as they work constantly to adapt to the rapidly changing situation, many argue their businesses are positioned to provide hope and positive energy, both in demand as much as food. “It’s a nice reminder that there’s something to look forward to,” Lee says of the pop-up, “instead of offering altered versions of existing concepts and being reminded just how much our lives have been ruptured by this pandemic.”

That positivity flows in all directions. Many owners are passing along that goodwill through charity work, sending food and drinks to hospital workers or those in need. Customers also provide owners with the necessary confidence to open and stay open.

“I know I seem a little crazy to be opening a restaurant right now,” Felts says. “But when people come in and thank me for doing that and they’re excited to see the food, to get some cheese and just have a little happiness, it makes it totally worth it.”

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/4/30/21240323/new-restaurants-opening-during-coronavirus-covid-19

Created April 30, 2020 at 09:16PM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

[easyfoodnetwork]

Inside Panino Taglio | Stephanie Forrer Saddled with debt, mortgages, and payroll, some owners have no choice but to open a new restaurant in the midst of COVID-19 Across the country, the novel coronavirus has closed countless restaurants, temporarily or permanently. Yet, even as the future for food businesses looks dire and restaurants struggle to attain financial support from Congress, new restaurants are opening their doors against economic headwinds. Established names and first-time owners are untangling health and safety requirements and navigating the murky ethical waters of employing staff, all to offer bagels, Vietnamese coffee, Korean fine dining, cheese boards, and pizza to home diners and frontline workers. “Some people think we’re crazy to have our opening day right now,” says Chen Dien of Coffeeholic House in Seattle. Along with his wife Trang Cao, Dien opened the cafe, which specializes in brewing with Vietnamese slow-drip phin filters, for takeout only on March 17, one day after Seattle closed restaurants for dine-in service. The couple closed the cafe soon after, for two weeks, as the situation grew worse. But after Gov. Jay Inslee extended the stay-at-home order until May 4, they decided to reopen for good, without seating and with guide markers on the floor to ensure social distancing. “It’s been our dream for many years to open our own coffee shop,” Dien explains. They simply couldn’t let the business die, and remaining closed wasn’t an option. “It’s very hard for a small business like ours to shut down for a few months and not do anything. We still have bills to pay.” Many others are in a similar spot, opening in the middle of stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures because they had little choice. Amalia Litsa and Joshua Adrian, co-owners of the new Dear Diary Coffeehouse in Austin, decided to open their cafe for takeout on April 4, weeks after the city ordered restaurants closed on March 17. “It’s not like a business just pops up out of nowhere,” Litsa says. “Business loans, personal capital, building out a space for nine months — the business existed well before the brick-and-mortar part of it did.” The partners opened, even while other restaurants around town were closing, partly because they lacked the funds to fully ride out the storm. “No matter what, we’re going to operate at a loss, but even a weak revenue stream would slow that loss,” Litsa says. “It’s our best chance of surviving at all.” Courtesy Coffeeholic House Customers wait at Coffeeholic House Courtesy Coffeeholic House Pick-up orders at Coffeeholic House Even restaurant groups, which could concentrate resources and staff at existing businesses, have decided it sometimes makes more economic sense to add another venue to their rosters. Brendan McGill, chef and owner of Hitchcock in Bainbridge Island, Washington, and sister restaurants in Seattle, had been leasing a space in the Georgetown neighborhood for seven years before soft opening Panino Taglio on March 21. The cafe, an extension of his downtown restaurant Bar Taglio, offers take-and-bake pizzas alongside Italian pantry items. “I had been paying for an empty space, so I figured doing some business in there, especially if it made sense in relation to the other businesses, why not activate it?” McGill says. The team limited expenses as much as possible for the low-lift venture. McGill borrowed equipment from a friend’s warehouse during build-out and employed a delivery person in-house to avoid paying fees to delivery platforms. McGill adds, “The landscape could change constantly as we attempt it, but that’s not much different from the restaurant business anyway.” Without foot traffic, new business owners must rely (even more than usual) on social and digital media to spread the word about opening. “There’s a lot of noise on social right now, but everyone is just at home glued to their phones,” McGill says. “I think there’s good reach right now.” He points out it’s tricky to thread the needle on messaging, encouraging people to pick up food in person while government and health authorities are telling people to stay home. But Panino Taglio offers CSA boxes, wine, prepared items, and pantry goods all in one place, letting shoppers stock up on all their needs in one fell swoop. “We’re just trying to encourage people to do it from a local foods company rather than one of the big chains,” McGill says. “We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone.” Andrew Dana, co-owner of Call Your Mother in D.C., actually wanted to keep things quiet while opening a second location of the bagel shop in Capitol Hill on April 15. “This isn’t the opening where you want tons and tons of people there. You want it to feel safe,” he says. But word spread quickly through the neighborhood listservs and from there to local media. “Every food blog in the city has picked up on it because it’s not like there are a lot of other restaurants opening.” To temper the hype and keep the operation safe, he has been cutting off orders after 1,600 bagels, often the day before people can even pick up. Beautiful Rind, a specialty cheese cafe in Chicago, passed all of its inspections on March 19, the day before Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order. Cheesemonger Randall Felts officially opened his business on April 10, even as work crews continued touch-ups on the space. Felts originally planned to service the local community during the first year of business, then launch digital offerings in year two to expand customer reach. Now he says his local customers are digital too, so he’s accelerating his web plans. Beautiful Rind debuted by offering digital classes: Felts delivers all the cheese boards himself (“it’s actually how I started in the restaurant industry, delivering sandwiches,” he says, noting how he’s come full circle), then returns to the shop to lead customers through a tasting. “The big challenge for me right now as a business owner is quickly learning how to be a website manager or a webinar host,” Felts says, though he admits it’s not too different from other ways he’s had to pivot as a business owner — he’s a pretty good plumber, too. That scrappy spirit has allowed small businesses like Dear Diary and Coffeeholic to open with little or no staff, delaying hiring until they can consistently afford full staffs. At Dear Diary, Litsa and Adrian are only opening the shop five days a week. The buffer allows either partner to step in if their one barista becomes ill. But for larger operations, payroll often necessitates opening. On April 10, Corey Lee of three-Michelin-starred Benu in San Francisco launched a preview of the hotly awaited San Ho Won, a Korean concept that was announced last fall. The restaurant was supposed to open this summer, but its recent takeout-only debut, in the form of a set menu, is being orchestrated from the Benu kitchen. Lee tells Eater via email that the business is providing healthcare and a meal program to all furloughed employees across his restaurant empire, as well as financial aid to international workers on visas who don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. “We felt like we needed to try something if we were to sustain everyone’s situation for an unknown period of time,” he says. Opening San Ho Won now as a takeout concept gives staff a chance to perfect recipes for the forthcoming restaurant, and allows Lee to funnel money directly to his workers. Dana similarly had staff in mind when he moved ahead with opening a second Call Your Mother. While the original location is only doing 10 percent less retail business at the moment, he says, the business makes almost half its revenue from farmers markets and catering, which have dried up completely. The shop hasn’t cut employee salaries at all, though, so they needed the second location to make up the difference in revenue. Before opening the second location, Dana sent out a survey to the team asking employees how they got to work, whether they lived with high-risk individuals, and whether they wanted to work at all. The responses informed managers’ decision to open and allowed them to identify employees who could safely walk to the new location rather than taking public transit to the original shop. They’re also paying some employees to work from home, helping maintain the new online ordering system and providing customer support over the phone. New business owners may be excited about big plans for the future, but for now they too must adjust expectations. “There’s a lot of good stuff we want to launch, but we’re waiting for the best timing,” Dien says, though he remains optimistic. “We’ve been waiting for more than a year already, so it’s okay to wait for a little bit more.” In the summer, he hopes Coffeeholic can offer more drinks, like watermelon juice, coconut coffee, and lychee or passion fruit tea. Both the original Call Your Mother shop and the new one are limiting offerings to streamline operations for reduced kitchen staff: The new location only offers whole bagels with cream cheese. Felts also cut down offerings, and he had to pivot to feature domestic cheese and charcuterie as the pandemic affected international trade with European suppliers. “We’ve been able to transition more to those guys and spread the love as best we can,” he says. Felts has also worked to incorporate small, local partners, offering online pairing classes featuring beer and cider makers. Randall Felts Randall Felts leading a digital cheese tasting The Dear Diary menu reflects shifting supply in Austin, too. “There didn’t used to be this much demand for growlers,” Litsa explains, “but now every coffee shop in town is offering cold brew growlers, so they’re really hard to get from any distributor.” She and Adrian looked for alternative packaging on Amazon and came upon plastic honey bears, popular among home beekeepers. They now package cold brew in 22-ounce bears and to-go syrups in 8-ounce versions. As fellow coffee shops have closed, though, Litsa has also noticed the opposite problem: local bakeries and caterers with nowhere to sell their goods. Rather than spread small orders between a lot of suppliers, Litsa has decided to concentrate on developing quality relationships through substantial orders from a select few partners. Litsa argues that new restaurants are particularly flexible to the changing situation. “In a way we’re blessed by having less business because it gives us more time to wrap our heads around what to do next and we can experiment without pissing off as many people,” she says. “By the time we have more business, either because corona has lifted or our economy has morphed, we’ll be really frickin’ good at what we do.” Litsa brought her sewing machine to the cafe to produce masks during slow hours; she sells the masks alongside coffee. There are plans for goodie boxes of art supplies and postcards. “Corona is indefinite. It could be a year. It could be two years. It could be the economy is forever changed. We just need to accept that now and adapt,” Litsa says. “We’re bleeding over the edges of a strict coffee shop definition.” Even as they work constantly to adapt to the rapidly changing situation, many argue their businesses are positioned to provide hope and positive energy, both in demand as much as food. “It’s a nice reminder that there’s something to look forward to,” Lee says of the pop-up, “instead of offering altered versions of existing concepts and being reminded just how much our lives have been ruptured by this pandemic.” That positivity flows in all directions. Many owners are passing along that goodwill through charity work, sending food and drinks to hospital workers or those in need. Customers also provide owners with the necessary confidence to open and stay open. “I know I seem a little crazy to be opening a restaurant right now,” Felts says. “But when people come in and thank me for doing that and they’re excited to see the food, to get some cheese and just have a little happiness, it makes it totally worth it.” from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2zLof0z

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-new-restaurants-are-still-somehow.html