Only a few restaurants dared open this week in Anchorage for sit down service. And not many stores are open yet, although they can legally open.
Must Read Alaska readers ventured out to see if they could sit down in a restaurant, rather than order take-out food. Under the previous coronavirus health mandate, restaurants were forbidden from offering a table to patrons — you had to take your food with you at the few dining establishments that were prepared to shift to an all-to-go dining experience.
One airline employee relayed her dining safari in downtown Anchorage. After trying without luck to eat at Lucky Wishbone or the Glacier Brewhouse, she found that Simon & Seaforts was open, and she was easily able to make a reservation to eat in the bar area. There were about a dozen patrons, she said, and the waiter wore a mask. What’s more, the chef even made a special dish of halibut and slaw, something that is not normally on the menu.
Another MRAK reader said she and her husband “dined out” at Arctic Roadrunner, eating at the outdoor tables. “Lunch at Arctic Roadrunner was delicious as always with the perfect weather for our table by the creek!” she wrote. “We ordered our food with a plexiglass piece mounted in a wooden frame with a space underneath for the cash (because they don’t accept cards to go through).”
Bernadette Wilson, one of the organizers of the “Open Alaska” rally last week, wandered into the Dimond Mall to see if she could replace a broken butter dish. No such luck. While the mall was open, all the stores were closed, as her video shows:
Wilson said she talked to one store owner who said that the mandates are confusing and changing, and the company did not want to risk running afoul of the government.
