As Coronavirus Precautions Empty Dining Rooms, DFW Restaurants Pivot to Takeout

As countless bars and restaurants outside of Texas are closing to prevent the spread of coronavirus, DFW eateries are adapting to newly empty dining rooms by adding meals available for takeout and delivery, among other measures.

Over the weekend, chef Matt McCallister’s Homewood introduced a brand new menu of shareable take-out meals that diners can call ahead and order before picking up at the restaurant. Priced at $40 per person, these “Homewood at home” meals include options like the restaurant’s famed Parker House rolls, grilled broccoli salad with whipped yogurt, and whole-roasted chicken or lasagna bolognese. “We just want to provide something for our guests, we will get through this all together,” McCallister said. “We started working on this late last week we just needed to get everything together to roll it out.”

Chef Uno Immanivong, who operates Red Stix Asian Street Food, has introduced a take-out option with plenty of staying power: vacuum-sealed packages of her Vietnamese-style meat skewers (among other dishes) that diners can freeze and eat later. In Fort Worth, vaunted restaurant Ellerbe Fine Foods is offering its entire lunch and dinner menu for curbside pick-up, and that includes dishes for kids and bottles of wine for the grown-ups.

Lakewood diner Gold Rush Cafe closed its doors for a couple of days to figure out how to handle the outbreak, but according to the Dallas Morning News, has since re-opened as a take-out only spot. The same goes for East Dallas Italian grocery Jimmy’s Food Store, which is no longer allowing diners to eat their Italian Stallion sandwiches in the shop’s tiny dining room, but still serving sandwiches to-go.

It’s likely that in the coming days, more DFW restaurants will pivot to take-out or delivery-only models as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Eater will update this post with any new details as they become available.