Tuesdays

If you go down Dalhousie Street in Amherstburg on a Friday or Saturday night, there are people everywhere and parking is a premium. Some people are there dog walking and a lot of them are there for our wonderful restaurants.

• Royal Canadian Legion
• Lord Amherst
• Artisan Grill
• Lot 10 Brewing Company
• Royal Sushi House
• Ricardo’s Italian
• Caffeine and Company
• Beacon Ale House
• The Salty Dog
• Waterfront Ice Cream
• Chicano’s Tacos and Tequila

and if you just go a block or two east, you’ll find

• Burger 67
• Naples Pizza
• Nuccelli’s Frozen Yogurt
• Speck’s
• Tim Horton’s

The common thread to them all at present is that you can’t go in and have a meal or enjoy an ice cream or yogurt. That means that there are so many people who would normally be employed as servers aren’t making a wage – even though for the most part, it’s a minimum wage. In addition, there are those who work hard in the kitchens to prepare the excellent meals. They’re a big part of your community; they shop at your stores and they may even send their kids to your school.

In a normal summer, you’d find these businesses very busy. You’d also find them paying back to the community by supporting hockey, baseball, soccer, … You wouldn’t notice that part now because sporting is all on pause. But who hasn’t seen a kid go by wearing a baseball jersey with a sponsor name on the back.

Some places are open for pick up or delivery. If they are, they are typically operating on limited hours.

Kudos have to go out to those that are making the attempt to keep things running like normal. All restaurants that have remained open for limited service have put into place a routine to prepare food as safely as possible. From what I’m seeing here, there is NO attempt to raise prices or otherwise gouge those who are still supporting them. Just like everyone, they want life to return pre-March. That still appears to be in the future.

Around here, people talk about #TakeOutTuesday and people are encouraged to support these businesses on Tuesdays. (Other days are great too!) They’re certainly not experiencing the sales that they would normally have. But they more than appreciate the business at this time. It’s certainly not business as usual but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a meal prepared by someone else. The people that make it happen still are working hard. Since they are paid at a minimum server wage level, they do rely on the tips that you can provide. If one good thing that comes from this, it might well be people moving to “tap” with their payments. Typically, there’s a button there to do a tip calculation for you rather than the collection of nickels and dimes that you might pull from your pocket. The tip doesn’t just go to the server, it’s divided up to help the people in the kitchen that you might not typically see. They deserve it too.

Unless I’ve completely lost track of days, this post will appear on Tuesday morning. Why not treat yourself to supper prepared by someone in your community who does this for a living? And, don’t forget to tip nicely as well.

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