Netflix wasn't the answer, it was the kitchen: A review of the dining scene in 2020

Share:

The server brought over another pint of Quidi Vidi at the same time the food arrived at the table. It was a pretty average March evening at The Adelaide Oyster House — bustling with friends catching up, first dates and fish tacos galore —  with the exception of the uni carbonara on special, which I devoured with abandon.

Little did I know it was the last bite of food I would eat in a restaurant for three months.

When dining rooms eventually opened again, the very idea of a restaurant would mean something completely different: No more casual dates, massive birthday dinners or, in theory, bustling.

2020, am I right?

In the media, December is typically all about the year-end review. The best restaurants of the year, the biggest events, the most disastrous celebrity spills.

Those now seem a bit trivial considering the year we've all had. But while it may feel too soon to reconcile how many last nails were hammered into the coffins of restaurants in the city, taking stock (or pho, or broth) of what 2020 meant for the food scene here in St. John's, I think, is critical to navigating what lies ahead.

A few major themes have emerged: a harsh (and overdue) reckoning with food insecurity in this province; a dependence on oil and tourism that somehow surprised people; and, most of all, that our restaurateurs and food people really know how to make things work in inconceivable situations. It's all affected what we eat and where we eat drastically.

So here's 2020, blow by literal blow.

Snowmageddon strikes

Let's start at the beginning of the end, shall we?

Remember when we thought Snowmaggedon was going to be the worst thing that happened to us this year? After 80 cm of snow and hurricane-like winds trapped the people of the St. John's area in their homes for days, the grocery store lineups made national news.

The simple act of picking up milk became something worthy of Homer's pen and more people than ever found themselves up close and personal with how limited our access to foodstuffs really is in Newfoundland and Labrador.