What will eating out in Oregon look like in the coronavirus era?

The great reopening is upon us. Next week, Multnomah County is expected to join the 35 other Oregon counties already in Gov. Kate Brown’s Phase 1 plan allowing restaurants to start cautiously inviting customers back into their long-shuttered dining rooms. But what will await those first customers to venture inside? Will they be seated next to tables filled with stand-in mannequins, ala restaurants in Washington, D.C.? Will they find themselves eating in two-person greenhouses or under protective cones, as diners in Holland and France, respectively, have done? One thing’s for sure: The new normal will be anything but.

Dining rooms

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the central theme for everyday life is: Distance, distance, distance. The same will be true inside restaurants, as Oregon’s reopening plan calls for customers to be separated by at least six feet. At Southeast Portland’s intimate Coquine, chef Katy Millard and partner Ksandek Podbielski figure that means they could fit as few as four tables in their Mount Tabor-side restaurant. Other restaurants and bars report similar numbers. Even after each of Oregon’s 36 counties has begun to reopen, it could be months before people feel comfortable eating indoors again.

Taking it to the streets

Civic leaders across Oregon are responding to this issue by waiving permitting fees and fast-tracking applications to open more public spaces to restaurants, potentially allowing more of the kind of al fresco dining typically associated with European cities. Already, some restaurant and bar owners are crafting plans to expand into nearby parking lots, rooftops or even some side streets. Greg Higgins, the chef at Portland’s original farm-to-table restaurant Higgins, is among them. The restaurant’s first food cart, Piggins, will open this summer in the Oregon Historical Society’s outdoor plaza. “Given that this is coming out of this COVID mess, it’s an incredible opportunity for people to rethink what they’re doing and respond in a really positive way,” Higgins said.

Mask-wearing servers

Masks have emerged as a political lightning rod across America. The CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. Last month, Gov. Brown asked Oregonians to be “kind and smart” when it comes to wearing masks in public, and has required them of restaurant employees. But Brown left the question of whether to require masks of customers to individual businesses. On Mother’s Day, Troutdale’s Sugarpine Drive-in became one of the first Oregon restaurants to require face coverings for customers picking up takeout. “We’re not being trendy, we’re being safe,” co-owner Ryan Domingo said. “And we want customers that will respect that. We, after all, are the ones in harm’s way, for you.” Expect many other businesses to follow suit.

Bar seating

While tables can be removed to accommodate six-foot distances, bar seating won’t initially be allowed in Oregon, and counter seats are forbidden unless they face a wall. That poses a huge challenge for bars and restaurants with limited space. Nostrana chef Cathy Whims, whose team only launched takeout in May, wonders how quickly people will even want to sit at her Italian restaurant’s big, barrel-roofed bar, or Enoteca Nostrana, the modish sister wine bar next door. “I don’t know that I would want to sit at a bar right now. With my mask on? The bartenders really close to you? What’s the appeal in that? I can’t envision it really.”

Heat check

Temperature checks have become the norm at restaurants in China, Taiwan and other countries that have reopened their dining rooms. Oregon is not requiring temperature checks, but some local businesses are considering the practice. Shaun King, the former Momofuku Las Vegas chef whose Bar King opened in Southeast Portland five days before the shutdown, plans to install a $400 thermal imaging camera linked to an iPad that will show customers their temperatures as they walk in the door. “We won’t be probing you right in the head, which seems aggressive,” King said. “But we want people to know that we’re taking the next level in terms of public safety.”

Sanitizer stations

Several state and local governments have mulled the idea of requiring hand sanitizer or disinfectant wipes at stores’ doors. Moving this from optional to required is not out of the realm of possibility for restaurants.

Spring (less) formal

Several restaurant owners predict a shift toward a more casual style of eating out. “The biggest change we’re going to see is going to be in fine dining,” said Kurt Huffman, whose ChefStable group backs both counter-service (Lardo, XLB) and sit-down (Ox, St. Jack) restaurants. “The economics of it don’t work. Depending on how elaborate the food is, you just have more people prepping, more people cooking, you need more qualified cooks to cook the food. And the level of service you’re trying to provide requires more floor staff. You might have somebody there just to talk about wine. The nicer a place is, the less profitable it’s likely to be.” Still, some top restaurants think they can make a go of it, at least temporarily. Andy Fortgang, the co-owner of Le Pigeon and Canard, thinks customers could get a kick out of an intimate dining experience featuring just him and two-time James Beard Award-winning chef Gabriel Rucker.

Shared plates and communal tables

In planning menus, chefs might think twice about those ubiquitous “small plates meant for sharing” — anything that comes in one bowl, cup or plate and is enjoyed by several people simultaneously. Meanwhile, Portland’s once-popular communal tables are probably a thing of the past. “Beast will never exist again,” said Naomi Pomeroy, the James Beard Award-winning owner of Beast as well as Expatriate, the cocktail bar across the street. “I had two communal tables where you sit right next to people you don’t know. I have to shut off a concept I spent 12 years building, and I don’t know yet what the next thing is going to be.”

The kitchen

While dining-room space can be altered, a kitchen — where staff often work shoulder-to-shoulder — can change only so much. At downtown Portland’s Love Belizean, the 150-square-foot kitchen isn’t much bigger than the restaurant’s original food cart digs. Still, the tight quarters might not matter if nearby office workers aren’t allowed to return. “I’m not sure I’m going to be hiring anybody,” said owner Tiffany Love. “Most of my customers are office workers. Are they going to be coming back to work, ever? Until we see a change that makes us need to hire someone, it’s just going to be me and my husband. I’m sure a lot of small businesses like us will just do family-only.”

What are the restaurant casualties of Coronavirus? Don’t expect to see these things returning for some time if ever.

Buffets

One business sector at severe risk of being left behind is self-service restaurants, including the buffets, salad bars and conveyor-belt sushi spots specifically currently prohibited from operating as usual. Srimanth Chinnam, owner of Swagat locations in Portland, Beaverton and Hillsboro, is planning to keep his popular lunch buffet closed for a long time, perhaps until a vaccine is available. “So many people touching the same spoons,” Chinnam said, “there’s no way to maintain social distancing at the buffet table.”

Open bowls of mints

Matchbooks, candies, toothpicks and other niceties sometimes found as you leave a restaurant? Just consider how many unwashed hands may have fondled those mints before you, and you can forget that practice, at least for now.

Paying with cash

Well before the shutdown, Donut Palace owner Safou Atwi began double-washing all surfaces with a highly concentrated cleaning solution and bleaching customers’ money using gloves and tongs. At the time, it seemed like an over-abundance of caution. But by April, most restaurants were allowing customers to pay for takeout in advance over the phone or online using plastic. In the coronavirus era, cash isn’t king. It’s cards.

Self-serve condiments, napkins and soda machines

In the days before the shutdown, Oregon restaurants were already rewriting safety plans to make these self-serve staples single-use or only available on demand. Under Oregon’s Phase 1 guidelines, those rules are now set in stone.

And don’t forget …

››Reservations will be more important with restaurants operating at diminished capacities, both to diminish crowds gathering around a host stand and help government officials trace outbreaks.

››Commissaries might be considered for multiple restaurants within the same company. If you own several restaurants, you might have one commissary making some of the food for all the locations in one place. Some of those commissaries will begin operating as ghost kitchens — restaurants that are only available through delivery apps.

››Restaurant reviews will change. With the food industry reeling from the crisis, both professional reviews and those found on Yelp will have to take into account the many ways businesses are adjusting to new models, and customers will have to be more patient overall.

— Michael Russell, mrussell@oregonian.com, @tdmrussell

— The Washington Post and Cleveland.com contributed to this report.