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  12/01/2020

  Brooke Dusk Oral History, 2020/12/01

  Brooke Dusk is a Senior Business Loan Officer at WESTconsin Credit Union. Her job is to help businesses in their time of need. That being said, her whole world has gotten flipped upside-down. She worked first hand with helping businesses apply for the Federal Grant known as the Paycheck Protection Plan, as well as other state grants and loans that businesses could take out. Brooke also has a science background and gives some amazing insight into the pandemic and what she foresees for the future.
• 2021-10-04

  Restaurant Employees' Experience during COVID-19

  Restaurant Employees’ Experience during COVID-19 The norms of life pre-COVID are not the norms we are experiencing now. We all get accustomed to our ways of living, and then our lives have changed in a blink of an eye. I am a server in a restaurant and walk out each shift with cash in my hands. March 19, 2020, my life changed. I was a college student that lived day today when it came to my income, and for six weeks, I did not have an income to help with the bare necessities of living. However, I was very fortunate that my parents were the lucky ones that still had jobs, and they were able to help me until the restaurants opened back up. I have learned the importance of saving money. The experience of working in a restaurant during COVID-19 was unlike any experience I had in the past. Everyone was required to wear a mask, and the interaction with the guests was unnatural. The guests not being able to see our expressions and not hearing us clearly, I felt we lost the customer service our guests expected. It was challenging to breathe with the masks as the restaurant industry is fast-paced, and at times we would get overheated, nauseous, and did not feel well. I was always ready to go home so I could take off my mask. To-go sales now are a much more significant part of the restaurant business. The challenge with the increase in to-go orders is the design of the kitchens. They are designed to handle the projected sales based on experience, and when to-go sales became unlimited, the time to prepare meals doubled in time, and guests were unhappy. Many did not understand that the kitchen can only produce some much product per hour. It eventually got to the point that the restaurant would have to turn off their phones because the kitchen was at the maximum number of orders that they could produce. Trying to keep the guests happy was a challenge. If we took unlimited to-go orders, then the cook times were doubled. However, if we limited the number of to-go orders, the guests would also be unhappy. It will be interesting to see if the restaurant industry gets back to the norms of pre-COVID.
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  03/23/2020

  Drago's Restaurant in Metairie and Baton Rouge Remain Open for To-Go Orders, New Orleans, LA

  Drago's restaurants in Metairie and Baton Rouge remain open for business while implementing safety procedures such as checking employees' temperatures.
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  2020-04-07

  Drago's Restaurant Thanks State Representative Charles Henry, New Orleans, LA

  The post reads, "Thank you newly elected State Representative Charles Henry for allowing us to serve the Governor and his staff at GOHSEP today," Photograph shows a table full of Drago's TO-Go boxes.
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  2020-03-18

  Cafe du Monde Remains Open, New Orleans, LA

  Cafe du Monde in the French Market of New Orleans remains open for take-outs only prior to Louisiana state-wide stay-at-home order. All mall locations are closed.
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  2020-03-31

  New Orleans' Famous Galatoire's Offers COVID-19 Update

  Bourbon Streets', Galatoire's, offers a COVID-19 update on the restaurant's website. Information details Family TO-GO Meals and a new menu each day.
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  2020-03-30

  Sign Series #9

  This is part of a series exploring the role of language, typography and design in informing the general public. #FordhamUniversity #VART3030 #SignSeries