First restaurant food since February

[MickinMD ★]

My brother's 55th birthday was yesterday.  He's 6 1/2 years younger than my sister who is 8 1/2 years younger than me.  When asked why his kids were so spread out, Dad said, "It was a long time between drinks."

Anyway, my brother and wife were going to listen to some friend's son's band at 7 pm (turned out to be outdoors, they froze their asses off in 40+° weather) and I'd watch their son Adam, so we decided to go out to a restaurant beforehand and chose Jimmy's Famous Seafood, extremely popular and located in the Baltimore working-class suburb of Dundalk, which has a wall lined with pictures of athletes, actors, and other celebrities that ate there so they could raise their prices without you feeling they're overpriced.  Their food is excellent!

We did appetizers that could be a meal on their own from mussels in their shells with garlic sauce (awesome!) to crab dip and muffins.  I then had cream of crab soup and shrimp stuffed with crab imperial. I had Guinness Blonde for the first time - a little smoother than the usual Miller Lite but nothing too special. Sister-in-Law Lori had a crab dish. Brother Tim and Nephew Adam had sushi. We all left so stuffed we could hardly walk to the car.

The tables were social distanced and you have to wear masks when not at a table but...

the bar - about 15 feet from us - was crowded with no masks or social distancing among those seated.

Great food!

Birthday Cookies & Cream Cheesecake - we non-kids have reached the point where we don't do presents anymore for birthdays, just take us to a restaurant!

There is about a 30' long by 5' high collage of pictures.  Ravens' All-Pro Kicker Justin Tucker (highest field goal percentage in NFL history) is in the "Ravens & Bohs & Crabs and & O's" shirt in the middle of the 3 rows pic, 2nd from left pic.  So we could say we say Justin Tucker at Jimmy's but he was in Houston getting ready for the next-day's game when we were there.

Excellent menu from steamed crabs to sushi and all well prepared!

 

 

 

[shootingstar]

Appreciate the family gathering.  I'm sure those photos will be treasured in your family.

But I haven't been to any restaurant with a social group that size since well Feb. 2020. Our covid restrictions in our area were imposed 2nd wk. in Mar.

I have been in a restaurant twice,....with 1 good friend.  Same person...within the past 4 months.  We sat diagonally from one another at a table meant for 4 people to eat.  THere was pexiglass on both sides of our table area. The patio door was flung wide open to outdoors for circulation.  Then we went for a walk in a park.  One of us were behind the other a few metres, talking aimabily.  We could not walk apart side by side, because the pathway is too narrow, without getting in the way of cyclists.

Sadly, I suspect we can't do this restaurant rendez-vous,  in winter because of tight buildings to keep out cold.

The next "social" group will be with only dearie in a few months.  That's all. Even that feels abit risky but I will have to take shower, etc. once I get to him.

I know for a fact, none of my 4 siblings have had any social gathering with my mother in her home since Mar.  Only 1 person comes around each time, to look after her.  They don't even sleep at her house (though I'm certain she's invited them to.)  They can't afford it since all siblings work in health care facilties in Toronto area.  I know that other families are different...but the risk is higher in some families because of siblings' jobs now and possible exposure.

I don't expect to see my Toronto family for another 2-3 yrs., counting this yr. also.  I visited them in Sept. 2019.  The pandemic has been hard on families and...couples like myself and dearie.  The sacrifice to keep distance and keep loved ones safe, is significant and at times, demanding.

[MickinMD ★]

3 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Appreciate the family gathering.

But I haven't been to any restaurant with a social group that size since well Feb. 2020. Our covid restrictions in our area were imposed 2nd wk. in Mar.

I have been in a restaurant twice,....with 1 good friend.  Same person...within the past 4 months.  We sat diagonally from one another at a table meant for 4 people to eat.  THere was pexiglass on both sides of our table area. The patio door was flung wide open to outdoors for circulation.  Then we went for a walk in a park.  One of us were behind the other a few metres, talking aimabily.  We could not walk apart side by side, because the pathway is too narrow, without getting in the way of cyclists.

Sadly, I suspect we can't do this restaurant rendez-vous,  in winter because of tight buildings to keep out cold.

The next "social" group will be with only dearie in a few months.  That's all. Even that feels abit risky but I will have to take shower, etc. once I get to him.

I know for a fact, none of my 4 siblings have had any social gathering with my mother in her home since Mar.  Only 1 person comes around each time, to look after her.  They don't even sleep at her house (though I'm certain she's invited them to.)  They can't afford it since all siblings work in health care facilties in Toronto area.

We usually have a big gathering and celebrate 3 birthdays since my brother's birthday is 9/19, his wife's 9/26, and me 10/1, but it's just not safely doable now.

So, since the four of us were going to be together anyway for me to watch my 12 year-old nephew Adam while brother and his wife went listening to a band, we just decided I'd come over early and we'd go to Jimmy's.  They did keep the dining area social distanced - allowing small groups like us to sit normally without masks - but I was a little bothered by the shoulder-to-shoulder, crowded bar shown in the pic above. I don't think that's legal in Maryland yet, but the Baltimore County Exec, where that restaurant is located, has openly said that restrictions are still in place but no one will be arrested or fined for breaking them.

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations are (287) the lowest since the pandemic started, deaths statewide (6 million pop) avg. about 5 per day (vs 30 per day for hearth disease), and positive tests have fallen below 3%.  So people are not taking things very seriously.  Fortunately our Governor and County and City leaders, even though a mix of Republicans and Democrats, have shown good leadership, work together, and keep reasonable restrictions active.

[Longjohn ★]

Can’t call dibs on your stuff because the fire got it. That’ snot fair.

[Mr. Silly]

I haven't been to a restaurant as a group since Feb. Mrs. Grumpy and I have eaten at restaurants for lunch a couple times.  We get there right as it opens.  The tables are clean and the restaurant is usually empty.

She and I had our first restaurant dinner Thursday evening.  When to a sushi place and I had a bibimbop for the first time.  It was fantastic.  We went early, 4:30'ish and ate outside.  There was one other couple there, they were more than 15 feet away.

[shootingstar]

6 hours ago, Mr. Silly said:

I haven't been to a restaurant as a group since Feb. Mrs. Grumpy and I have eaten at restaurants for lunch a couple times.  We get there right as it opens.  The tables are clean and the restaurant is usually empty.

She and I had our first restaurant dinner Thursday evening.  When to a sushi place and I had a bibimbop for the first time.  It was fantastic.  We went early, 4:30'ish and ate outside.  There was one other couple there, they were more than 15 feet away.

Winter will be hard for those living in snowy regions.  

[Randomguy]

10 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

Winter will be hard for those living in snowy regions.  

I won't be going to an inside restaurant until well after a safe (a PROVEN safe) and effective vaccine has been rolled out for at least 6 months.  If ALL doors and windows are open, then maybe MAYBE an exception could be made.   If a place has put in a new-fangled coronavirus filtration system that sucks exhaled air up and out, then that might be worth another look, provided that testing proves such a system eliminates the vast majority of the air in the place.  

 Eating outside seems relatively safe by all accounts (and, most importantly, scientists and disease specialists).  Inside dining seems fraught with stupid peril at this point.

[ChrisL]

We have been getting restaurant food since the pandemic started but we get it to go and eat at home.  We had a mini family reunion in Aug where my siblings and I took some pictures & had lunch out on a restaurant patio.   Our group was so large only one other table was being served.

We haven’t eaten inside a restaurant since this mess started and restaurants just opened for limited inside seating a couple of weeks ago.