California mall sets up outdoor dining patio on ground floor of parking garage
As restaurateurs continue to get creative carving out Covid-compliant outdoor seating spaces in major metropolitan areas, the areas being converted are becoming more unexpected. Long-time food court tenant Massis Kabob set up table service on the ground floor of the Glendale Galleria’s parking garage in Glendale, California. When a Curbed editor was sent to report on the social-media-maligned “dystopian” setup, she found some expected shortcomings: “Each squeal of a tire or smack of tread ricochets through the space. A honk is enough to jolt your gyro right out of your hand.” But they also found the tables, set atop square patches of Astroturf within the vast parking structure, to feel safer than eating near free-moving traffic. Is dining out worth it when it comes to this? As one parking lot patron said: “The virus is here to stay for a while… We’ve got to be ingenious, creative. We won’t be captive.”
