Some Good Food News From The Pandemic
Phil Lempert is a television and radio news reporter, newspaper columnist, author, consumerologist, and food marketing expert. For more than 25 years, Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products, and the changing retail landscape, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies worldwide. Known as The Supermarket Guru®, Lempert is a distinguished author and speaker who alerts customers and business leaders to impending corporate and consumer trends, and empowers them to make educated purchasing and marketing decisions.
Published in Partnership with 
TRANSCRIPT:
We have seen lots of innovations as a result of the situation we are now living with. Restaurmarts, more delivery, more curbside pick up and according to a column in Easter San Francisco, lots of innovations in foods.
Eater SF reached out to half a dozen chefs, owners, writers, and critics, to see what pandemic-era changes they’ve appreciated during this strange time. Here are a few of the innovations they hope will stick around, long after the pandemic is “over.”
Keep the takeout cocktails coming. Why not have drinks to go? We have liquor stores, what’s the difference? I want to make sure people stay safe, but if you want restaurants to stick around, takeout cocktails make it great for customers who want to go home and relax. According to April Spears, chef and owner of Auntie April’s and Cafe Envy.
Luke Tsai, food editor of Eater SF says we are Finding comfort in comfort foods.
I’ve loved the pivot to restaurants offering easily reheatable comfort foods for takeout — trays of take-and-bake lasagna or jollof rice or big tubs of Japanese curry he says. These are stressful times, so when I sit down at the dinner table, or plop down in front of the TV for a late-night snack, I’m usually just craving something that’s going to make me feel warm and safe.
Dennis Leung, general manager of Palette Tea House started offering DIY dumplings would be a way to have fun with the family during shelter in place. He heard from many customers who miss “yum cha” or the dim sum brunch, so we wanted to find a way for everyone to enjoy fresh dim sum at home.
Jennifer Bennett, co-owner of Zazie enjoys more room to breathe between tables. She told Eater that “I’m enjoying the open spacing and how much quieter and more peaceful social distancing makes the dining area. However, most restaurants can’t subsist on half the seats …. For Zazie to make a profit at half capacity with the same costs, we’d have to sell a plate of pancakes for $30, and I’m not sure people are going to go for that, she adds.
Reality has yet to set in.
