Mayor London Breed Warns San Franciscans Against Throwing Dinner Parties

The mayor of San Francisco is preparing for a coronavirus “surge,” and says that people shouldn’t be planning in-home food events like dinner parties.

As San Franciscans continue to shelter in place, people frustrated with the isolation that entails might be planning dining events at home, Mayor London Breed says — and they need to stop.

Speaking at a Thursday news conference, Breed reminded people that “shelter-in-place means you and your family members and people who are part of your household are the only people in your household. So we are discouraging play dates and dinner parties and other things that typically you may want to do in your homes.”

That means no house parties, no wine clubs, and no meals around the table for folks who don’t already occupy a place. It’s all part of the city’s effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), as confirmed cases across the city reached a new high of 70 as of Thursday, a number the SF Examiner reports “is likely an underestimate of the actual number of people infected,” as many people could carry the virus without symptoms.

In an interview with Business Insider on Thursday, Breed reiterated that there’s a possibility that the requirement to remain home will continue past April 7 (when the order was announced on Monday, Breed said then that the region will re-evaluate that date as the crisis progresses). “This is an evolving situation,” she said. “Things are changing constantly. And I think that as things change, we need to be prepared to make adjustments.”

And in other news...

• As they settle in for weeks of closure, Mission bars and restaurants are boarding up their windows. [Mission Local]
• A customer at Mill Valley fave Buckeye Roadhouse left a $2000 tip, and said it was his way of helping “a place that means a lot to us.” [ABC 7]
• Local grilled cheese chain The Melt is offering free meals to first responders and hospital workers. [KRON 4]
• Writer Jenny G. Zhang argues that “grocery workers, agricultural producers, truck drivers who keep the supply chains moving, the cooks and delivery people upon whom the ill and the confined rely on to eat” all deserve hazard pay as they toil during the crisis. [Eater National]
• As people aren’t going into their offices any more, cafes like Farley’s, a 30-year-old coffee shop with locations in SF and Oakland business districts, can’t even rely on takeout to sustain themselves. [Reuters]
• With no passengers, SF’s already suffering cab drivers are pivoting to food delivery. Some of them are actually making some money in their new gigs! [SF Examiner]
• In the shelter-in-place era, SF’s year-long restaurant experiment Gap Year at Nico is experimenting a bit more in an effort to use up its supply of toilet paper. [SF Weekly]
• Wineries are classified as “essential” under shalter-in-place rules, so wine producers and vineyard workers are still at work even as tasting rooms close. [SF Chronicle]
• SF bubble tea chain Boba Guys is suspending business (even delivery and takeout) Friday, co-founder Andrew Chau says. Though he hopes to reopen most stores eventually, some “might not be financially viable to open back again and I think we have to accept that reality.” [ABC 7]
• If you’re ordering takeout from a local restaurant because you want to support it, think about contacting them directly instead of using an app, as delivery companies continue to charge restaurants a lot — even during the crisis. [Richie Nakano/Twitter]