I don’t know if I have COVID-19. I feel good. But I’ve been going out. I’ve touched doorknobs. I’ve spontaneously shaken a hand or two and then touched my face like nobody’s business. I even shared plates and snuck a sip of someone else’s cocktail. In other words, this past weekend I stupidly put my friends, family and community at risk. That stops now. I can only speak for myself and my family, but from today forward it’s take-out, delivery and home cooking only. The powers that be have yet to give a directive to close table service in restaurants, bars and cafes (as they have in some European countries and American cities), but we know it’s coming, so instead of irresponsibly promoting or writing stories that advocate for business as usual, Scout & Islandist will be keeping tabs on new developments related to the service industry that are of interest to our core mission, and doing what we can to entertain and inform, one day at a time until we get to the other side of this damned thing. It’s going to be a hard road ahead. It hurts to see our friends losing shifts, getting laid off, temporarily closing up shop, and struggling to support the people they really care about. But it’s going to be much harder if they get sick and start infecting others, especially the most vulnerable. This is why we need to pull out all the stops now. As a small business that is tied to the hospitality industry, this is going to be brutal for us financially, but we need to take this threat very seriously, and you should too. If there is any way that we can help our members and advertisers in this difficult time, we are here to share your take-out menus, updates, and news — even the hard parts. We’re all in this together, so let’s be smart and beat the daylights out of this thing.

Yours, two meters away.

Andrew Morrison
Editor-in-Chief | Scout & Islandist