Accordingly catching up with friends over a cold beer at your favourite watering hole, trying out a new food joint in town, driving over to a beach-side shack for some seafood and salty air. These are a few of our favourite things which we haven’t done in over 40 days. However, the end of the lockdown will signal a ‘new normal’ and social life may not exactly be what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In cities such as chennai which has seen a steady uptick in cases, restaurants which are major points of social contact may function differently. TNM spoke to a few chennai based restaurant owners, some of whom say that the pandemic has, for all intents and purposes, altered the restaurant/resto bar business for the anticipated future.This could mean a new wave of tech-driven dining interface where robots could replace polite serving staff, paper menu cards will make way for mobile phones and drones could zoom around to spray clean door knobs, countertops and other touch points - if one is futuristic. It also implies smaller changes which could significantly alter customer experience in food outlets.
According to Food Safety and Standards Authority of india (FSSAI) guidelines issued to restaurants, employers have been asked to limit contacts between serving staff and customers, by coming up with new strategies. And limited contact with customers could mean many things. Primarily, it can change dining experiences unique to indian cuisine, says Harshit. Take for example chaat items such as the Golgappa or Paani puri which is made and dropped into the bowls of waiting customers to be eaten fresh.
