Midmorning With Aundrea - June 9, 2020 (Part 2)

(Part 2 of 2) Restaurants are beginning to open up while observing social distancing.

We visit one Virginia restaurant where mannequins have been set up for atmosphere.

To keep diners safe, restaurants around the nation are putting "socia distancing" policies in place.

In virginia, one of the nation's best- known dining venues re-opened with an inventive solution in place: diners who aren't very demanding..

But who still contribute to the atmosphere.

Ed o'keefe has the story.

World-renowned chef patrick o'connell thinks he's figured out how to recapture the magic of a full dining room at the inn at little washington.

Customers& that don't pay... or speak... or move much, either.

This young man is proposing to the sweet young lady there.

// as he's proposing, which is something that happens here a lot // you have a sense that instead of just sitting there looking dumb, they are in, in action.

Action is exactly what o'connell craves.

Reopening has never been in doubt for the the little inn tucked at the base of shenandoah national park.

Its allure has only grown since 2018 when it was awarded three michelin stars -- the only establishment in the region to to earn the coveted top honor.

But for o'connell, a lifelong theater fan, an empty dining room is an empty stage.

I was working in restaurants all during school and studying theater.

And i realized that living theater was where it was at.

// and then i fell in love with the idea of a dual theater, the kitchen vs.

The dining room.

You had two plays running on a split screen.

So if this is a theatrical production, pandemic is a hell of a plot twist.

That's where the mannequins, outfitted in costumes from the nineteen-forties by a northern virginia theater company, come to the table.

I mean, everyone calling now for future reservations wants to come and see the mannequins& they really mean they want to come and see how it makes them feel.

/// i got to believe some customers are going to like this because they don't like to think that the next table over is listening in on their conversation.

Exactly, exactly.

And it also allows our waitstaff to top off their wine or look in on the mannequin or me to go out and be sure everything's fine.

Isn't wasting wine, a crime?

Who gets to drink that wine at the end of the night?

Surprisingly, when we come back in the next morning, that wine is always gone.

The inn at little washington is the heart and soul of this virginia town with fewer than 150 residents.

O'connell first knew it as a gas station on family trips.

But he had a vision.

"i just thought i was the most wonderful thing of getting away from all reality, going out in the country and finding some elegant, wonderful dinner.

His parents didn't want him to become a chef, but a trip to europe after college only cemented his desire to cook.

"i thought t myself, yes, i must do this, whatever it takes."

His instructor: julia child's famed cookbook, 'mastering the art of french cooking.'

My rule was that i would make the recipe three times, just as it was written, only then would i allow myself to improvise and do it my way.

In 1978, patrick bought that gas station - and he's been living his dream for more than forty years.

The inn now includes more than 20 buildings on 25 acres, a garden and some animals.

When the pandemic forced o'connell to close in mid-march, his staff of 170 shrank to about a dozen.

In recent weeks, just 3 people worked the kitchen, preparing meals for furloughed employees and their families.

When they reopen is a matter of life and death for the community; the food and lodging tax the inn collects supplies 90 percent of the town's budget.

Oconnell while we are closed, the town has no income.

Okeefe that makes reopening even more critical.

Oconnell it does.

It does.

Because you're affecting not just your own staff, but all the other businesses in town.

The bnb's, the small shops and stores.

But you're funding the water system.

The sewage system and every -- all the other infrastructure for a small town.

So it's a level of responsibility that most restaurants don't imagine.

How do you think this is going to transform how americans eat out?

I think there's gonna be a renewed appreciation for whatever a restaurant has to offer.

And people are pent up.

They want to get out.

Okeefe you know, there's going to be someone out there who sees this and thinks.

Gosh, that seems a little opulent for the times, given that there are so many people who are, you know -- no, no, no.

I think i think the problem over whether or not we're still allowed to have fun.

And i think the era that we've entered has confused a lot of people in that they don't know how to act.

They don't know how to be.

And they're fearful not only of what they're dealing with, but of how they'll be judged by others.

He is eager for his inn to once again be a place to gather -- even if we must maintain a certain distance.

Someone said to me he thinks that restaurants might be the final frontier of human interaction.

Restaurants are sort of the last bastions of trust and they're kind of like a new religion, a sacred place, because food can't lie.

// you know, when you put something in your mouth, if it's wonderful or it's not and there's no, no getting around that.

For cbs this morning, saturday, ed o'keefe, washington, virginia that and more on the next midmorning.