With travel restrictions in place and supermarket shelves depleted in some cities in the West, people need food and restaurants need business more than ever. In an effort to help solve this problem Wes Avila, James Beard finalist and chef-owner of L.A.’s Guerrilla Tacos, created an Emergency Taco Kit, a robust spread of everything you need to keep yourself in shelter-in-place taco heaven for days: 10 pounds of cooked meat, fresh tortillas, rice, beans, and pints of red and green salsas. It sells for $149, which comes out to around $2.50 per award-winning taco. To sweeten the deal they throw in 30 eggs and a roll of toilet paper.
Avila is just one of many chefs who’ve gotten creative and have added staples like eggs, pasta, rice, sauces, bread, and other items frequently sold out at supermarkets (albeit of a much higher quality) along with prepared food. In L.A., Highly Likely in West Adam’s is selling cult-fave Bub and Grandma’s Bread, Jon and Vinny’s is selling pasta and sauces, in Seattle Homer is offering cookie dough along with its prepared foods, Addo is selling stock, and in Los Gatos Flights restaurant has opened a no-touch pick-up grocery store in its parking lot.
While this is a boon for people who need food, want to avoid crowds, and do their part to support local businesses, it’s a stop-gap measure for restaurants, many of whom might not survive the coronavirus crisis. Every pint of sauce, pound of pasta, dozen eggs, and bottle of booze you buy from a restaurant gives them a fighting chance to survive and be there for you on the other side of the pandemic.
To help you find the restaurants that are currently offering takeout and delivery throughout the West, we created The Sunset Guide To Takeout and Delivery, an open source Google sheet organized by city and region. If you’re a restaurateur, please add your establishment. If you’re a customer, do your best to patronize the spots near you.
Sadly many restaurants have shuttered, some for good, and others will likely follow suit. To date seven million restaurant and bar workers have been laid off nationwide, according to the newly form Independent Restaurant Coalition. To help unemployed and furloughed restaurant workers, the IRC is organizing an outreach campaign to push congress to create income replacement relief for the industry. For more information go to saverestaurants.co. To donate to the restaurant worker relief fund of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which was formed in New York in the wake of September 11th and now has chapters in all the major cities, go to rocunited.org. And if you’re an unemployed restaurant worker in need of help ROCU also has a comprehensive list of resources available.