One of my favorite restaurants — The Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard — has announced it will be reopening its fabled dining rooms (seen in a great many movies including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) for dinner service on Friday, June 26. A cause for celebration? Maybe. Sort of. I guess.
I love the food there. I love the atmosphere there…that feeling of "Old Hollywood" which you find in shorter and shorted supply in Current Hollywood. But unfortunately, they've also had to announce a whole lotta rules under which they will now be operating. Here — go read them. It'll take a few minutes.
Back? That was quite a list, wasn't it? I went through less controls when my friend Brad had a heart transplant and they brought me into the recovery room to see him right after the surgery.
None of this is to fault the Musso & Frank folks in any way. I commend them for such a thorough, not-inexpensive list of changes designed to protect their staff and their customers. It's what you have to do now. I just think I don't want to eat there…or probably anywhere outside my home for a while.
We need to accept the fact that "normality," if we can even remember what that was, may be a long way off. New medicines and the passage of time may make a lot of things safer but The Great Pandemic of 2020 will be with us, hopefully in ever-diminishing ways, for a long time. Henceforth, we all use hand sanitizer a lot more than we previously did…and wash our hands more. Henceforth, we will have to weigh any opportunity that involves being in a crowd against the possible risks.
Like I said, I love the food at Musso's but I can find food just as good on my doorstep thanks to Grubhub and contactless delivery. And I love the Old Hollywood air at Musso's but Old Hollywood didn't involve masked waiters and putting on mine to go use the Men's Room, which someone will probably be in there feverishly scouring any time I need in.
Here in my Fortress of Solitude, there are few reminders of The Plague. I can go hours without thinking about it. It just seems to me that "dining out" won't be anywhere near as fun/enriching as it was and I don't like that. Part of me would like to rush to Musso's and other restaurants I love, not only to experience them in whatever means is still available to us but to support them and keep them as viable businesses. But another part of me is thinking, "No, I won't do that for a long time" and the first part of me admits that the second part of me is going to win this one.
I'm hoping that Musso's hooks up with Grubhub or one of the other delivery services so I can at least support them a little. I'm guessing they won't because they figure the Musso & Frank Experience involves actually dining in Musso & Frank's and I'm sure they're right. I just can't see myself enjoying a meal in any restaurant where the bus boys are hovering about as I eat, constantly sanitizing me for my protection.