I almost forgot to share this! Ivan and I had our first little “date night” out on Wednesday night. I want to jot down what the experience was like so I can remember this little COVID milestone!
The boys were going to a mini “birthday party” for our neighbor girl (i.e. playing outside only like they normally do, with the same 2 neighbor kids they’ve been allowed to play with) except the girl’s parents bought pizza and birthday dessert and we sent a present!
Anyway, since the boys were occupied, and we knew some restaurants were opening back up, we decided to try going out.
We called Texas Roadhouse to see if they were open. Ivan loves that place but we rarely go, because they normally have those big buckets of peanuts everywhere and peanut shells all over the floor and tables…and Asher is allergic to peanuts! So it’s mostly just a place we go sans kids. (We found out the peanut thing has been currently nixed anyway, though).
Turns out they were indeed open. I was able to put my name on a waiting list by phone and we had a 1 hour window during which we could arrive.
We headed over and found 2 parking attendants outside (masked). The first girl was basically directing traffic- to go order pickups this way, dine in clients that way. Then the next girl down the way asked for our “Reservation code” I had received by phone. She took my phone number and told us to park and wait in the car until we received a text that our table was ready.
After <5 minutes, I got the text and we headed in. The waiting area was totally closed off – no congregating in the entrance allowed. All employees were wearing cloth masks, including all of the cooks (you can see the kitchen line at this restaurant).
We were led straight to our table and it did feel a bit odd, because if you have ever been to Texas Roadhouse, you know it is usually PACKED!! Not sure what it is, but that place is always hopping. We got a booth in a side section with no other people seated anywhere near us. We could see that the customers were all being seated only every few tables, with huge distances between the tables.
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| He only agreed to smile for this selfie because his tall, draft beer was on the way. 😉 |
They had a sign posted on the wall above the table with a barcode to scan to see an online menu, or you could request a small paper single use menu (no regular menus). They also had a barcode to scan in to pay your bill online (contactless).
Everything else was relatively normal- the waitress brought our food wearing gloves but everything else was as usual. She also did have a cute fabric mask on the whole time, which of course was kind of weird, but I guess I’m getting used to the mask thing a bit now. We paid online and helped ourselves to provided hand sanitizer liberally as well (stationed around and at the entrance/ exit).
In our opinion, the restaurant seemed to do a really nice and thorough job of implementing various modifications in order to reopen safely. I honestly felt very comfortable, was never close to anyone, really, and we had a pleasant meal. The one thing that was “missing” was a bit of the normal ambiance, in a way. Like I said, Texas Roadhouse is usually a loud, boisterous place, so it felt a bit strange to be seated off by ourselves.
We followed up our meal with a romantic stroll down the aisle of Home Depot to pick up some salt for the water softener. Ha! 😉
I know some people may not feel comfortable going out yet, and that is okay! We did, and after what we saw there, I felt confident with our personal decision for now. The waitress seemed very relieved to be back at work, too!
5/28:
Steps: 10,251
Meditate: Done
Read: Ugh. I have been so bad about getting my reading time in this week! And I’m reading a really good book, too!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for our washer and dryer, that we don’t have to wash and dry all of our clothes by hand like so many people in the world. And, I am even more grateful that Ivan does almost all of the laundry at our house. 😁
GRATEFUL KAE 
I'm glad you were able to get out for a date night. I am sure it was really nice to get some one-on-one time with food made by someone else and delivered on a plate! Since I'm high risk, we won't be going to restaurants anytime soon. Plus now that we know Paul is potentially exposed to COVID, we feel it's our duty to be extra careful as we could spread it to others. So we are sticking to only seeing daycare families and not really going out and about much. I really enjoyed our day date on our anniversary so I would like to try to do that again and maybe go kayaking on a lake if the kayak rentals open up this summer? We'll see. I know we won't get a babysitter in 2020…
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