As Outdoor Dining Ban Drags on, SFO Fills With Holiday Travelers

Welcome to p.m. Intel, your bite-sized roundup of Bay Area food and restaurant news. Tips are always welcome, drop them here.

• California’s rules seem clear: restaurants can’t resume sit-down dining, even outdoors, until hospitals in their region have available ICU beds. But it’s hard to imagine that coronavirus case rates will do anything but rise when one sees that San Francisco International Airport is packed with travelers “ignoring (the) COVID travel warning,” KPIX reports. If headed to San Francisco, those travelers must follow a 10-day quarantine, and the SF Business Times reports that violators could face misdemeanor charges “punishable by fine, imprisonment or both.” But according to the SF Chronicle, there are “no signs, no notices at airline counters, no public announcement on airplanes” alerting those arriving at SFO that the quarantine law is in effect, and some travelers who spoke with the paper said that they “might sneak a trip” out regardless. So, good luck, everyone. We’re going to need it.
• Meanwhile, even though doctors say that dining out in an unmasked state can transmit COVID-19 even while outdoors, members of SF’s Board of Supervisors have proposed a non-binding resolution “calling on the state to be more transparent” about why outdoor dining poses health risks. [KRON 4]
• Food critic Soleil Ho questions the power of social media callouts as a path to systemic change within the restaurant industry. [SF Chronicle]
• The Village Project founder Adrian Williams serves up thousands of bags of groceries to Fillmore District residents in need every month. [SF Examiner]
• Outer Richmond restaurant Cassava was robbed last week, but owner Yuka Ioroi isn’t blaming the cops or even the thieves, saying that “people don’t have money because of the government’s failure. This incident only validates our point that you can’t shut down without compensating people.” [SF Business Times]
• Traffic at local tamale spots has dropped by as much as 50 percent. [SF Weekly]
• The California Craft Brewers Association is suing the state, saying that “COVID-19 public health orders unjustly target small, craft beer makers.” [ABC 7]