[custom_adv] The Los Angeles chef Josef Centeno woke up early Saturday morning, to find piles of smashed glass and scrawls of graffiti at his downtown restaurants. Like so many businesses, his Bar Amá and Bäco Mercat had been vandalized during protests overnight. [custom_adv] In 140 cities around the United States, restaurants have been vandalized, looted and sometimes burned. Owners are angry, scared and frustrated. But many have played an increasingly important role in supporting protesters — providing them with food, supplies and donations. [custom_adv] Once a local government says that restaurants can admit dine-in guests, a McDonald’s official in that region will decide whether reopening can begin, it says. Then individual franchise owners will make a decision about whether to go through with reopening. [custom_adv] In addition to the rules about kiosks and bathrooms, the guide calls for all “high-touch” areas to be disinfected every 30 minutes and recommends putting signage on the floor to prevent customers from brushing past one another as they move around. [custom_adv] Unlike the small, independent restaurants that have been battered during the pandemic, McDonald’s was in a good position to weather the economic fallout. Its drive-throughs have stayed open, and they accounted for about two-thirds of the company’s revenue before the crisis. [custom_adv] But the company’s bottom line has still taken a hit. After reporting a decline in sales last month, the company’s chief executive, Chris Kempczinski, warned that “the exact trajectory of our recovery is highly uncertain.” [custom_adv] And workers and labor advocates have criticized the company for failing to provide sufficient protective equipment to employees working at the drive-throughs. [custom_adv] Virtually every restaurant owner in the United States — from Michelin-star chefs to fast-food executives — has been wrestling with how to make dining rooms safe in the coronavirus era. Some owners are planning to install plexiglass barriers between booths, while others are turning to paper menus and disposable cutlery.
