Mission, Save the Huntsville Restaurants!

Huntsville Restaurants

With COVID-19 still raging around the world, employees of course are struggling to hold onto their means for making a living.  Restaurants, just like so many, struggling professions currently find themselves fighting to keep their doors open for the public.  With health code standards at an all time high, new positions for hire at an all time low, some of my favorite past times, such as dining out, has left millions of workers out of the kitchens, and onto the unemployment lines. 

Dining out has ceased to be a priority for many, and Alabama having increased COVID cases, even tripling in Madison County, where I reside, and restaurants that were slowly opening, now still fear potentially closing again. 

With tightening health code requirements for serving the public and limited people to handle the increasing workload, the days have been “hit or miss,” Tess G. from Luciano’s commented when I dined recently.  “Some days are good and some days are bad,” she said, “It’s hot in the kitchen, It’s hard for the clients, it’s unnerving.”  With the hot, dog days of summer in full force, she’s certainly right about the difficulty of “the unemployment, the low staff, and the roller coaster of emotions.”  Especially as of today when I saw on Luciano’s website at lucianohuntsville.com, they are in fact, “temporarily closed as a precautionary measure against the COVID virus.” 

Luciano states, “As a precaution, due to the amount of people that are asymptomatic to COVID, we sent all our staff to get tested.  Unfortunately, we learned July 8^th, that one is positive.  We have decided to close for two weeks to make sure each employee shows a negative test results and to perform a full sanitation of the restaurant.  Our priority is to keep all of our patrons, and the people they will come into contact with, Safe.  We will miss all of you and hope to see you soon after these uncertain and crazy times, we are currently living in, fade away.  There is Hope. Please stay Safe.” 

Considering I went to Luciano’s the day before the Fourth of July, the seriousness of COVID has indeed hit home.  Initially, this article was to safely invite people to save the restaurants that were starting to open again.  However, now I feel conflicted as to the necessity and or prudency to do that at all.  On one hand, I yearn to be out and about again, but now I wonder if perhaps I should still be quarantining myself much more. 

So with some reservations, I still wanted to show my brief culinary excursions via pictures, in my neck of the woods, still serving the public, in hopes that the restaurants that are still open, can maintain their customers.  Businesses rely on customers, even now, so I definitely do not envy the struggle forced upon them now.  So, my mission, still, Huntsville, if safely, is To Help Save the Restaurants!

Everyone has the their hobbies, one of mine being dining out.  With this pandemic, priorities of course have taken over, but as a person who has friends in the restaurant industry, jobs are jobs.  Equally as important, as well as to the morale of society, socialization is ceasing to be as necessary, as our heath obviously takes precendence, but perhaps we can move with caution.  Being cooped up takes it’s toll, so when restaurants opened up again, I immediately opted to try and get out, but now reigning myself in and holding tight to my mask a little more, at least I was able to have some freedom while dining out briefly. 

We can still have a little cheer while supporting the employees and businesses, safely operating publicly, even though, it might be from our couches.  Here are the restaurants, via pictures I have ventured out to see even though Luciano is temporarily closed, as others might follow, but please remember, in any case if you do decide to take the leap and dine out, always tip your servers and your bartenders!  You can always call ahead or check the restaurant’s websites to see the status of their businesses.  Bon, appetit and be safe! 

Wear your mask, practice safe, social distancing, and enjoy the restaurants that are safely open and that are working so hard to offer a communal, culinary experience. 

Cheers!