What’s the latest on COVID in the Cardiff area?

View of the street art bike rack right beside Lofty Coffee in Encinitas

We watch the counts daily to see how our area is doing compared to the rest of San Diego, California in general and our entire country. San Diego as a whole is doing well, but there are definitely hot spots down by the border and in San Diego City proper.

The 14 day rolling positive rate in San Diego county is about 5.5% which is well below the 8% target mandated by our governor. In north county, our rates aren’t broken down specifically, but we are not listed as a hot spot of San Diego—which means we are doing well.  

A doctor I talked with last week told me that we had zero cases requiring hospitalizations in the local Encinitas hospital. We are seeing lots of folks out and about (almost everybody is wearing a mask) and restaurants have made the shift to full outdoor dining, and its working quite well.  Businesses are open for (masked) shopping, too. 

Downtown Encinitas has found its stride in offering outdoor seating, with sidewalks and parking spaces along the 101 having been taken over by restaurants offering full service dining under pop-up tents. As you visit these restaurants to dine outside, keep in mind that you must wear a mask at all times except when seated at your table. We try our best to wear ours when the server arrives to take our order or brings food, as well, as to not put them in any more risk.

Over the past week, we ate out four times to see what the experience is like. One night, we were in downtown San Diego and had ramen at Underbelly. There, the line was much longer that usual as they have very limited outdoor seating, and they had put up Plexiglas barriers between tables as to accommodate a good number of guests within their small space.

Eating at Lofty Coffee was pretty simple. We ordered at the counter, waited for them to call our name, and picked up our food from a table manned with a waiter behind a Plexiglas shield. Their patio tables were all spaced out and available for dining.

We also sat down for dine-in service at Beach Plum Cafe in Carlsbad. Here, everyone was sitting outside and the biggest difference from pre-COVID dining was that everything must be ordered—even condiments like salt and pepper that would typically already by stationed on the table. 

And finally, In-n-Out Burger was very similar to our experience at Lofty. We ordered at the counter and ate outside at their picnic tables. If you stop by here, just make sure you grab all your condiments from the pickup person as your grab your food so that you won’t have to make an extra trip back inside.

All in all, it didn’t seem too drastically different. In an odd sort of way, I guess this is the new normal.