Coronavirus in Utah – support your local economy

By now, I’m certain you’ve been inundated with everything from rolling 24 hour apocalyptical news coverage through to a litany of panicked restaurants proclaiming their newly found hyper-cleaning vigilance. It’s enough to simply profess, I give up, and hide under a ten pound sack of basmati rice in the pantry until this all blows over.

I’m not here to dispute the severity of Covid-19, nor to tell you like some that this is no worse than the flu. Lets be clear – this is indeed a serious situation – and those in our communities with compromised immune systems stand to get hit much harder than the flu. Please chide any idiot who tells you otherwise. Bad information is simply as good as giving someone a bear hug and a firm handshake at this point. We should all practice social distancing and what should already be everyday routine hygiene. But don’t panic. Be safe, be sensible but remain sane.

Right now the hospitality industry is hurting. A whole army of people who work paycheck to paycheck are seeing footfall in their businesses dramatically dropping (edit: as of March 16th footfall stopped entirely). How this will eventually shake out for the local and national economy is unclear, but we can all do our bit. We can all help support these businesses, and at the same time, make life under lock down a bit brighter too.

Starting today we’re suspending our normal food and beverage news coverage. We’re going to instead focus on what businesses are doing to stay afloat in this new reality. Should there be any doubt about our new shared reality – don’t expect things to get back to normal for months, not weeks. Hopefully you’ll be able to support local business initiatives and when we’re through the worst of it – you’ll still have your favorite businesses to visit. If you hide panicked under that sack of rice during this, things could get even worse.

Many business are now offering curbside pickup. You order over the phone, you pay with a card and when you turn up your order is passed through to you in the comfort of your car. No exchanging cash, no having to risk crowds or coughs. We’re compiling an active list of those businesses each and every day here. You can also find that on our homepage. Drop me a line if I missed any.

Also linked to at the top of our homepage – business that are now offering delivery directly. Sure you can use DoorDash and Grub Hub, but some businesses are repurposing their staff as a make shift delivery fleet, and in the process they get to keep more cash, and keep folks employed. We’ll be keeping this updated daily too. Many businesses also operate drive-thrus and were compiling a list of those remaining open here as well.

Expect our week to week coverage to focus on new offerings from businesses, special deals, family meals, interesting ways to keep fed while staying home. We’re personally going to buy up a smorgasbord of gift cards with our own cash and start giving them away here on the site each week during this.

Oh. While I’m here.

Wash your hands.

Links

• Curbside delivery
• Delivery from restaurants
• Drive thru restaurants operating as usual
• Ongoing corona food coverage
• Contact me with any info I’m missing

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC.  I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City  dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.

I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV.   Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.    I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.

Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.