I'm certainly no expert, HB, but I do not trust people. Especially during these difficult times, scam artists are working overtime to come up with schemes to rob people. Unless you are very comfortable with the proprietor of the cafe, and you can talk with them in person about this invitation, you are wise to be leery. Look at how many MSCs have been "spoofed" by scam artists who use their good reputations to try to sucker newbies with large checks.

Very true! I went to the cafe once with my pastor. I had coffee, she had tea. I was not a memorable customer.

Also, because the nearby businesses (county government and courthouses) are closed, they aren't getting the foot traffic they were prior to the chaos. I'm concerned about the turnover of their ingredients or prepared foods if they make the food inhouse.

Yesterday, while I was out, I drove to my favorite Japanese restaurant. It is a mom & pop place in a quiet little shopping center with a beauty school, an insurance agent, a Peruvian restaurant, an Italian restaurant and a few other service type tenants. I have been trying to phone in an order for several weeks for pick up, but nobody answers, so I was concerned they had folded. The shopping center was empty except two cars in front of the restaurant.

The woman and her son had plastic sheeting laid out across the sheltered sidewalk in front of the restaurant and had all the booth benches pulled out onto the sidewalk. The son (maybe 14?) was carefully painting the wood on the benches while the woman was reupholstering them as the paint dried. They both had masks and so did I, so I stopped to visit. They expect to be closed at least another week and are taking advantage of the opportunity to clean and update the restaurant. They apparently have already gutted, cleaned, repaired and updated the kitchen and restrooms, The husband is sanding and refinishing the tables out back and at night they are painting and rewallpapering the dining room. She was feeling blessed because they had expected to have to pay someone in the fall to come in and do the work for them so that it could be done with them only closed for a few days, so being able to do it themselves is saving them lots of money. Talk about making lemonade when life hands you lemons!

A couple of days ago I was on a grocery run and in my mind thought " I should go out to lunch today!" It was a few seconds before I remembered that all the restaurants where I live are shut down. Oh well, back to dishes and cooking.

I've done pick up several times since we were quarantined. I live in a small town (until the summer when our population grows exponentially) and I can't not support them because the season is going to a wash and if they don't get some business, they're not going to make it. Most of these places are personal friends of mine and I do trust that they are being as safe as possible. If I don't know the place, I'm not going to try it out now. I won't do delivery, though. I've only had delivery for craft beer and that's easily sanitized.

I think it's safe enough to do takeout with foods you can reheat. I wouldn't trust salads or other cold food items personally, but I agree it's right to keep local businesses afloat.

And beer is self sanitizing, LOL!!!!

Seriously. When I lived in FL and ate raw oysters, I turned my then boyfriend (now husband) onto raw oysters. I explained how important it was to drink alcohol with them. Naw, so maybe it has nothing to do with it, but I never got sick from raw oysters ever, and I drank booze with them every single time. And he enjoyed them much more after drinking a little bit first!

I feel the same way about wine.

Without sounding too "lushy" , I pretty much eat everything with booze of some sort. Oysters and a juicy IPA or a crisp Sauv Blanc sounds pretty darn good right about now