{"id":1320109,"date":"2020-05-19T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wertheim-column-the-ghost-of-dining-yet-to-come\/"},"modified":"2020-05-19T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T03:40:00","slug":"wertheim-column-the-ghost-of-dining-yet-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/wertheim-column-the-ghost-of-dining-yet-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Wertheim column: The ghost of dining yet to come"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"378\" height=\"547\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052020.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052020.jpg 378w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/CharlieColumn-gpi-052020-207x300.jpg 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">I didn\u2019t need a crystal ball to see into the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Just a drive to Moab.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Utah entered its first stage of reopening \u2014 the moderate risk protocol \u2014 on May 1, and restaurants and bars have been allowed to serve customers inside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">We were told numerous times that Grand County \u2014 of which Moab is the county seat \u2014 has just four reported cases of COVID-19 and zero deaths. (The New York Times website confirms four cases and zero deaths as of Tuesday.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That\u2019s almost five times fewer reported cases per population than Garfield County, so we weren\u2019t exactly heading into the trenches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nevertheless, it felt strange on the drive west thinking that we were about to return to near-normal activities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Maybe it was anxiety that venturing out into the world again could be a mistake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">I just saw a cartoon with a restaurant host asking a couple if they have reservations. \u201cYes, lots of them,\u201d they reply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But our experience there was very encouraging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There were no throngs of beer-swilling comrades in arms at the Josie Wyatt\u2019s Grille bar. Everything was tightly controlled: bar patrons had to have two chairs between them; outside tables were at least six feet apart; a line of inside tables was off-limits because there wasn\u2019t enough room between them and the bar for proper social distancing; all employees wore masks; and there were hand sanitizer stations in many locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Dinner at Desert Bistro was a similar experience. We ate outside, and tables were much more than six feet apart, and all employees wore masks. Reservations were mandatory to avoid people milling about waiting for a table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Having a drink in a bar and sitting in a restaurant eating dinner after two months felt quite normal, not like we\u2019re taking our lives in our hands. I thought to myself, \u201cThis will work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The servers seemed extremely happy to be working again and were very chatty. Our waiter became so animated that I admit I\u2019m glad he was wearing a mask.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">For any restaurateur who doesn\u2019t like the idea of his servers wearing masks, we would not have been comfortable had the staff not worn masks. For one thing: keep your droplets to yourself, please. But on a bigger scale it shows that the business owners are considerate of their customers and suggests they are taking precautions that are less obvious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It may be a little early to mean anything, but we were told that there have been no new cases reported in the two weeks Moab has been \u201copen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">So far so good from a low-COVID county that\u2019s inviting tourists to \u201ctake only souvenirs, leave only money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As tourists ourselves, following the now-familiar guidelines didn\u2019t detract from our experience (can you say new normal?), and we didn\u2019t think there was much increased risk of transmission at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Just don\u2019t forget to keep washing those hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Charlie Wertheim is a copy editor and reporter for the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. You can reach him at <a href=\"mailto:cwertheim@postindependent.com\">cwertheim@postindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/columns\/wertheim-column-the-ghost-of-dining-yet-to-come\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn\u2019t need a crystal ball to see into the future. Just a drive to Moab. Utah entered its first stage of reopening \u2014 the moderate risk protocol \u2014 on May 1, and restaurants and bars have been allowed to serve customers inside. We were told numerous times that Grand County \u2014 of which Moab [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1320109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 08:34:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}