Pool noodle hats? Inner-tube tables? Restaurants urge social distancing in wacky ways

Even as restaurants reopen to dine-in guests during the coronavirus pandemic, things are far from returning to normal.

That became abundantly clear as some establishments revealed how they would be enforcing social distancing, like asking guests to wear pool-noodle hats, ABC News reported.

It doesn’t end there though. Guests may see inner-tube tables, mini greenhouses and clear shower curtains separating tables when they eat out, according to ABC and The Columbus Dispatch.

Customers are asked to wear hats with pool noodles that extend about five feet from their heads in order to keep a safe distance between guests at a Cafe in Germany, My Modern Met reported. Jacqueline Rothe, owner of Cafe & Konditorei Rothe, says the hats are dual purpose: They keep people apart and put a smile on their faces because it’s hard not to laugh at how silly they look, according to My Modern Met.

“In these difficult times, it’s a pleasure to make others smile,” Rothe told My Modern Met.

Similarly, a restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland, is seating guests at tables made out of inner tubes, Delmarva Now reported. The customer stands in the middle of a tube with wheels surrounded by rubber that keeps patrons a safe distance apart, according to Delmarva Now.

“It’s like a bumper boat, but it’s actually a table,” Shawn Harmon, owner of Fish Tales, told Delmarva Now.

Across the pond in Amsterdam, guests at Mediamatic ETEN are seated at tables inside mini greenhouses with room for three, ABC reported. Novy’s Brasserie in Germany is also using little glass houses to encourage social distancing among diners, according to ABC.

In Ohio, a breakfast cafe called Twisted Citrus has installed clear shower curtains between tables to limit contact among patrons, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The restaurant has also rearranged tables so that they are facing back-to-back in order to comply with the state’s new social-distancing guidelines, according to the Dispatch.

“We are catering to the people who are comfortable to come out to a restaurant with precautions,” Kim Shapiro, owner of Twisted Citrus, told the Dispatch. “We’re trying to make our guests know that we’ve done something different and that we care.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Pool noodle hats? Inner-tube tables? Restaurants urge social distancing in wacky ways."