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"But that's life: it's so social So physical So so-so So emotional So stay home" One week going into MCO, how we all doing?

#drawing #movement control order #stay at home #american football #stay home #faults draws

Zoe Rai had a good two weeks of business in early March 2020, way better than Valentine's Day when it rained and bookings cancelled as a storm frustrated the romantics dreaming of candle-lit dinners.

That two weeks is a distant memory now two weeks later. Business has plunged to just 10% of monthly takings in a street that is just about to take off in cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur.

All due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the world, forcing governments to lock down people and shut down businesses to contain if not mitigate the viral outbreak.

His first floor restaurant Zoe Bangsar is just a year old in the now hip Bangsar Utama stretch where rent is still lower than Bangsar Baru and the nearby LRT Station is a boon for early night diners and drinkers.

But the road is eerily empty by 7pm these days and one can count the number of commuters going to the LRT station as operating hours have been cut to just peak times.

His restaurant, above a sundry shop, is empty as only takeaways and deliveries are allowed under the MCO. That too 8am to 8pm.

So Zoe, who trained in Cordon Bleu cooking in Australia and Thai cuisine in Chiang Mai, has gone online and with food delivery apps to keep his business going.

Some days are good with just a few orders, if you consider the worst day is just one. But nothing matches the minimum to keep his business alive.

So he's open from 10am to 1pm and 5pm to 7pm for lunch and dinner, juggling cooking duties and getting deliveries or takeaways sorted.

The cooking is the easy part, the waiting for orders and delivery chaps can be nail-biting, due to road blocks and delivery boy delays.

Sometimes, he works with just two others as other staff can't make it past the police road blocks that choke the otherwise empty KL streets.

His is a tale that's familiar around the world in this time of Covid-19, be it New York, London or Shanghai.

For example in the US.

https://marker.medium.com/tom-colicchio-spent-19-years-building-a-restaurant-empire-coronavirus-gutted-it-in-a-month-6c08cdc8cc05

Once the MCO is over in Kuala Lumpur and for that matter across Malaysia, one will find that some have closed for good and others open hoping for a bit of business.

It won't be the same for sure, not for a while as even customers and patrons will take time to be confident of dining outside.

Perhaps they will still order takeaways or get it via food delivery apps. But who knows how long chefs such as Zoe can survive if their takings aren't enough to just keep afloat?

* This is one of my photo essays this weekend, apart from trying to find subjects for the daily update during the MCO which is now due to end on April 14.