The holidays are here, and there’s plenty to celebrate this year as many Bay Area residents resume some level of pre-pandemic normalcy with their celebrations. Once again, we’re able to tie on a plastic bib and crack into a pile of just-caught Dungeness crab; holiday pop-up bars are have returned to light up the night from Petaluma to San Jose; and restaurants across the Bay Area are pulling out all the stops for Christmas and New Years Eve with luxurious menus loaded with truffles, oysters, and wagyu beef.

And yet, the restaurant industry is still in recovery mode, and navigating the new normal of dining out means embracing some new norms — from being prepared to show proof of vaccination to accepting that QR code menus might really be here to stay. But no matter what you’re celebrating or how, we hope this guide points you in the most delicious direction. Happy eating.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; the latest data about the delta variant indicates that it may pose a low-to-moderate risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial transmission. The latest CDC guidance is here; find a COVID-19 vaccination site here.