Time hasn’t been normal since March, which seems approximately 14 years ago. Every day is Saturday or Monday or hump day. You forget whether fall follows summer or precedes it. Sleeping through the night has become a thing of the past for many. As Christian Moerk, a Danish novelist who recently moved from New York to Paris, told the Wall Street Journal, “5 p.m. is the new 9 p.m.”
This change is evident, strangely enough, in the hours that people are choosing to eat out. Before the pandemic, most couples booking reservations would choose later times, such as 7:30 or 8 p.m. But they are now opting for the “early bird” hours, around 4 or 5 p.m. Some people would have been eating that early anyway, and now that they’re not going into the office, why not? If you’ve been working from home all day (all week, all month, almost all year), you might be a bit more eager to get out of the house.
“It’s a cocktail meets dinner meets aperitif,” said Alex Raij, the chef and co-owner of La Vara, a Spanish restaurant in New York City. She said the majority of early diners at her restaurant are groups of parents “who have been cooped up all day and need to see a friend at 5 p.m.”
Necessity is also a factor here. Many restaurants have only been offering outdoor dining due to coronavirus restrictions, and it’s much easier to score a reservation the earlier you go. Moreover, it’s much more enjoyable to sit outside and enjoy dinner when the sun is out, especially as temperatures begin to drop. “When you’re sitting still, it gets awfully cold,” said Anna Wiencrot, a Chicago survey researcher, who noted that she always brings a coat or blanket when choosing to eat outside.
Like so much of our coronavirus lifestyle, this new habit could go by the wayside once life begins to feel a bit more normal. Or maybe not. “We’re home again by 7,” said Elaine del Cerro Yau, who owns a bakery in Maryland with her husband. “You have a whole evening ahead of you. You got the eating out of the way, and you can binge-watch an entire series on Netflix.”
Sounds like a perfect evening to me.
