The point is, can you get into any restaurant in Portland on the spur of the moment? No. From persnickety websites to various ways of reserving a table, it’s not so easy. Online is encouraged, but in person or phone discouraged. Tuesday has become the new Monday, both of which have been the day that most restaurants are closed. Then there’s the Wednesday dilemma–some closed, a few open–where dining out can only take place Thursday to Sunday. Dining tables inside or out are precious few to reserve. If your favorite restaurants are serving at full capacity, where every allowable table is ready to be booked, the restaurant’s staff may still be limited, thus affecting the easy sway that restaurants used to enjoy–yes, I’ll say it–“pre-pandemic.”
The perfect Negroni at EVO
One place that I often visit when I don’t feel like cooking is a neighborhood eatery (Munjoy Hill) that specializes in pizza. The problem is you can’t call up to order a pie. It must be done online. Recently I walked in since I was in the neighborhood to place my order for pizza pie. I was told it must be done online. (Why not in person?) I answered that I have problems with the website, filtered by TOAST, the popular format for online ordering. Sometimes you hit it just right and can breeze through the process. But doing it on a cell phone is not effortless if downright impossible. It just it doesn’t work that well. I spent 5 minutes once looking for the menu on which to place my check mark to order.
