Dear Feastlings,
I can’t begin to guess what each of you is going through today, and I hope you’re all feeling safe and healthy.
We’ve spent the past day and a half dealing with all the logistics of opening essentially a brand new restaurant in 43 hours, and it’s been daunting couple of days. The staff here has been remarkable, and in spite of a few slip-ups (not everyone here remembers how to operate in a takeout restaurant,) they’ve done great work and hit the ground running. The new menu began about half an hour ago, so first of all, here’s that.
I had originally entitled it “March Pandemic Menu” but it lacked a certain charm. Not that March Takeout-Only Menu is much better, but at least it’s a bit less alarmist. A few notes about the menu:
-First, since you’re not here for your server to tell you what today’s special is, the specials will be listed at the bottom of the menu page, along with the soup. These will change, and we’re running as fast as we can, so please be patient with us and double-check to see if that portion of the menu is still current when you call to place your order.
-Second, since the world is shifting this fast, the menu may be too. Ingredients that we were supposed to be able to get yesterday are suddenly unavailable, and there will undoubtedly be other extenuating circumstances.
-Third, you’ll find a new symbol on the menu that looks like this: §. Dishes marked with a § are available to order cold and vacuum-sealed for you to heat and eat at your convenience by simply dropping the bag into simmering water for about five or six minutes. They’ll last in your fridge for a solid week and in your freezer for a month. In the interest of fairness and maintaining a spirit of community, we’re limiting the purchase of those dishes to four per guest until we get a handle on how much we need to prepare in order not to give anyone the short shrift, but once we know what we need and assuming we can continue to get the ingredients, we’ll boost that number if necessary.
-Fourth, beer, wine and spirits are available for pickup or delivery as well. You can find the wine list here
And while we can’t serve wine by the glass since no one can congregate here, you won’t really need the first pages, but the beers are listed here on page 3.
All the wine and beer prices reflect dine-in pricing, so the wines are $12 less to pick up for a 750 ml bottle, $6 less for a 375 ml bottle, and so on. The beers are a dollar less.
-Fifth, the more eyes we’re in front of, the more likely it is that we’ll weather this storm, so if you want to come sit down in Feast again once this is all over, please forward this email to your friends and family, and encourage them to sign up to receive our full-on email assault.
-Sixth, no man is an island. So the fifth statement applies to every small business you want to be able to enjoy come September. TELL YOUR COMMUNITY THAT ALL SMALL BUSINESSES NEED YOUR HELP RIGHT NOW. Every business that stays open keeps one, or a hundred, or a thousand people employed. And while you’re at it, see if your literal neighbors need anything. From a safe distance, of course.
-Seventh, just plain thank you. Thanks for the notes of support, thanks for buying your wine here, thanks for getting carryout or delivery, for buying gift cards, and for dropping off the generous gifts you’ve dropped off that will help keep your Feast family from going into a tailspin for another little bit.
Now take a look at the menu, or the menu of some other restaurant you want to remain open, and order something. You know you’ll be hungry sooner or later.
Love, and boy do I mean that,
Doug, and every last person who works at Feast