CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - As the debate heats up over how - and even whether - to secure restaurant spaces during the coronavirus pandemic, a mainstay of downtown Charleston dining has come up with a particularly summery solution.
“It’s a hardcore, full-height, double-wide lifeguard tower,” said Edmund’s Oast owner Scott Shor proudly, referring to the custom-built elevated watchtower that now looms over the Morrison Drive restaurant’s popular patio.
On May 27, he was preparing to paint the structure and add unspecified “decorative elements” to it for the amusement of the returning Edmund’s Oast faithful.
Shor was quick to point out that this is no mere social-media ploy, though it’s a sure bet it will pay dividends in free marketing via customers’ Instagram feeds.
Like many restaurants reopening in the Charleston area, Edmund’s Oast has incorporated into its reopening plan new workplace roles responsible for overseeing dining areas and ensuring guests are complying with its safety guidelines.
At the brewpub (and at its eponymous brewery on King Street Extension) they’re calling that job the “lifeguard.” And lifeguards need a stand.
“The lifeguard is kind of like the most important position in service, for us. We’re proud to have lifeguards on duty,” said Shor.
The tower will have a guard atop it during the restaurant’s open hours, seven days a week. Yes, that person will have a whistle. Shor also hinted that there may be some zinc sunscreen in the mix.
(The lifeguard is also responsible for overseeing a battery of cleaning practices restaurants implemented due to COVID-19′s arrival in the Lowcountry.)
But while the lookout resembles that which you might see at South Carolina’s beaches (which are also reopened, as it were), the job functions of Edmund’s Oast lifeguards will deviate quite a bit from their shorefront brethren.
For one thing, they’ll be wearing service clothing, not swimsuits. For another, rather than watching for struggling swimmers or telltale shark fins, Edmund’s Oast lifeguards will be acting as guides to confused diners unfamiliar with the space’s new layout, as well as “monitoring sanitation and guest interaction,” he explained.
Patrons trying to move the pre-measured and -spaced furniture or crowd more than eight people to a table, for example, would raise red flags for the restaurant’s lifeguard on-duty.
That a restaurant renowned nationally for its approach to hospitality has lately installed a a watchtower with which to guard its guests against unseen risks - like swimmers against an undertow, if you will - is a remarkable showcase of just how much of a sea change the Charleston food and beverage community has undergone during the coronavirus pandemic.
The shift is not lost on Shor. “You called me about the lifeguard chair, and this is a deeper question about the philosophy of hospitality” moving forward, he said laughing. “Hospitality now, a pillar of that is guest safety. It’s our role now to create an environment our guests feel safe in.”
In any case, the whistles are mostly for show, he promised. Unless, presumably, you get spotted roughhousing - behavior no lifeguard can abide.
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