Beverage bars: Self-serve beverage bars have been a part of the quick-service industry for years. But don’t expect to manage your unlimited refills on your own in a COVID-19 environment, where it is vital to minimize or eliminate practices that encourage people to gather in one place. In the FDA’s Best Practices guidelines for restaurants, the agency recommends the following: “Discontinuing operations such as salad bars, buffets, and beverage service stations that require customers to use common utensils or dispensers.”

California and Alaska have also said that restaurants should close areas where customers may congregate including self-serve buffets and salad bars. Alaska began reopening dine-in service May 8.

As McDonald’s begins to reopen some restaurants for dine-in, the chain said its beverage bars will remain closed or sectioned off in restaurants to minimize contact.

“We are recommending that restaurants move to individual beverages distribution with fresh cups for refills,” the company told Nation's Restaurant News.

In California, the state went so far as to suggest that restaurants discontinue “food selection carts and conveyor belts,” which could upend entire business models for dim-sum restaurants and some modern sushi bars.  

Consequences: Buffet bars are having to reinvent themselves or go under, as was the case last week when the parent company of Souplantation filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. Garden Fresh Restaurants, which has 97 buffet restaurants operating under the banners Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, called it quits because it did not see a path to reopening restaurants.

Solution: Janet Gieselman, chief marketing officer of Fogo de Chão, told the Orange County Register that staff will prepare all foods in the kitchen if need be. The upscale dining chain’s business model is based on tableside service, where servers carve and serve meats on skewers. The brand, which has a few locations in Southern California, also is known for its market buffet, shown.

 “The beauty of our model is that we can be completely and entirely flexible in how we deliver the Fogo experience to our guests,” she told the Register in an interview last week.  

Pizza Inn said its "New Right-Way Buffet" plan will keep customers and employees safe when restaurants are allowed to reopen. The new procedures call for one-way buffet traffic; team members will serve guests cafeteria-style at some locations.

Walk-in dining discouraged: One of the best parts of dining out is being spontaneous especially in big dazzling cities such as New York City and San Francisco.

But many state guidelines are asking diners to plan ahead and make reservations even at restaurants and bars. (Some bars, mind you, have not been allowed to reopen.)

Solution: Anticipating the problem (and perhaps an opportunity), reservation system OpenTable announced plans May 14 to open its technology to all drink-focused destinations such as bars, breweries and wineries. The company’s platform also offers a virtual waitlist, where diners  receive phone alerts when their table is ready.

Overall sit-down experience: From the moment you enter a restaurant, the entire experience will be vastly different. You’ll be greeted by servers and hosts wearing masks or face shields. Food runners will likely be eliminated, as most jurisdictions are limiting the number of employees interacting with each table.

Leather bound menus will be scrapped in favor of disposable paper or electronic menus. Upscale steakhouse Ruth’s Chris, for example, is using QR codes for diners to scan with their phone to fetch menus.

The communal act of dining will be eliminated as physical distancing rules will separate chance meetings at a bar, or friendly conversations with strangers at a shared table.  

Solution: The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar, which has three locations in Southern California, anticipated weeks ago that barriers might be required once restaurants could resume dine-in operations.

The owners immediately partnered with a company to create glass partitions that would ensure the safety of guests and staff, while maintaining the energy of the Winery’s dining rooms. The custom dividers, made with medical grade Lexan (a polycarbonate resin thermoplastic), have been installed at the brand’s Newport Beach location, shown.

The idea is to be safe, but also preserve “the integrity of the experience we strive to offer,” co-owner JC Clow said.

The company’s other locations are in San Diego and Tustin, Calif.