Local hangout Moe & Johnny's has been shuttered, hopefully temporarily.
During the summer, they'd converted the parking lot into awning-covered outdoor dining, but that deprived them of all their parking spaces, and parking there was fraught as it is, with a tiny lot and limited spaces.
I got lunch there a few times over the summer, dining on the patio, and business was noticeably slower. Of course, the coffee house business in the morning and the lunch crowd were always ancillary to the big evening crowds, especially during sporting events, and 2020 has just hammered that business model flat.
I've been making a point of supporting the local joints...I mean, I always have anyway, but I've been making an extra point of late.
Local joints tend to be on a knife's edge at the best of times. For every thriving local restaurant empire like the Sahm's, Patachou, Yat's, or Fat Dan's ones*, there's a standalone Twenty Tap or La Piedad. If I want them to be here next summer, I gotta make a point of being here for them now.
*And even they aren't bulletproof. Sahm's has closed a couple downtown locations due to the collapse of the lunchtime office crowd.
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