THREAD: 1/ I've been surprised at how little coverage I've seen of how the #coronavirus shutdown of #restaurant dining rooms has pushed some chefs and others in the business into the black and gray market. I imagine it's been talked about, but that should be everywhere.

2/ Producing @panconpodcast has given me a view into this that I didn't have a year ago. What I know well is the conflict that exists in #cigars. And I fear that the chefs and restaurateurs I've gotten to know are going down a path that will pit them against each other similarly.

3/ It's concerning to me because, at some point, we're going to enter whatever the new normal is. #Restaurants too. It seems to me that, when the dust settles, a food community that has been unified by the fight to survive will be torn apart, like so many others.

4/ Some of these #chefs are operating — out of necessity — in violation of unjust laws and regulations relating to things like electronic payment, how much revenue they can generate from home kitchens, etc.

5/ When agencies of governments starved for cash after months of not collecting fines, parking tickets, tax revenue, etc. come knocking, will the chefs and restaurateurs at the establishments that survived come to their peers' defense? Maybe some. But not most.

6/ In this way, the food industry isn't inherently special. Bar owners leverage municipal ordinances and relationships with law enforcement to put roadblocks in front of their competitors in other neighborhoods. Hotels large and small tell tall tales about the dangers of airBnB.

7/ Big tobacco looks to regulate mom-and-pop cigar makers out of business. Cab cartels box out Uber. And even chefs will sometimes do what they can to keep food trucks out of their neighborhoods. Why wouldn't they eventually go after the easy-target home-kitchen operations?

8/ Already, people operating things like "little pantries" are doing so at their own peril — and I doubt they're going to be rescued by groceries or restaurants-turned-markets. (s/o @billybinion at @reason) https://reason.com/2020/05/01/a-washington-woman-set-up-a-little-free-pantry-without-a-permit-asotin-county-threatened-criminal-charges/

9/ There are regulations that have been suspended to facilitate survival of #COVID19. My 2 cents as a restaurant industry outsider: Now is the time to push for new changes and to make the existing changes permanent. Before everyone loses the warm feeling of 'rona solidarity.

10/ Whether to allow alcohol delivery isn't a conversation we should have to have again. Revenue should have no bearing on whether a chef can legally sell food made at home. Neither should whether and how that entrepreneur accepts electronic payments. The list goes on...

11/ The sooner that conversation and change gets going — ideally with the participation of respected voices in each market — the freer each player in the food business will be to control his or her own destiny when the next crisis hits. And it will. /END