What’s next for Philly’s food culture as vaccines roll out and restaurants reopen?

Consider a pre-pandemic scene: a trendy restaurant or a favorite bar on a Friday night, swarming with customers — strangers — hugging, laughing, sharing food and drinks and airspace.

In the last year, we grappled with lessons on aerosolization, ventilation, and infection rates. We were forced to examine what we took for granted and to embrace what we still had. We saw simulation after simulation of how we exhale, how air flows in a room, how someone sitting 15 feet away presents danger. It scared some off, but many others continued on their way.

Dynamics changed as business owners recalibrated for safety and bottom lines. Some customers upped their tips and booked reservations more judiciously; some went in the opposite direction. Workers soldiered through in masks and face shields. Everyone got used to the phrase “indoor dining.”

How will this time change the culture of restaurants? What will stick, and what will be washed away by a few happy-hour margaritas? We picked the brains of various players in the Philly food community about what happened this last year and what might come next.

» READ MORE: A year without reviews, ratings, or a meal inside a Philly dining room

Slowly but steadily, restaurant workers are getting vaccines. Presumably, it will make work safer, enabling businesses to bring back indoor service and eventually operate at 100% capacity. And vaccinated customers might be eager to get back to the bar and toast to their rediscovered freedom.

But don’t expect the switch to flip overnight, and not just because state or city emergency orders have to be lifted first. Several restaurant owners expressed uncertainty about when they’d feel comfortable returning to regular business.

“We’re going to wait until we get a better sense of the flow of things,” said Judy Ni of Baology, whose staff will be fully vaccinated by mid-April. Ni is constantly sifting through vaccine data to project her Center City shop’s next move. “We still haven’t let anyone into our shop. I don’t think we’re planning on it until maybe summertime, and that also depends on how effective the vaccine rollout is to the main population.”

“It’s not just a game of, ‘How do we [the service industry] feel about it?’ It’s, ‘How does the rest of the general populace feel about everything?’ ” Ni said.

Sofia Deleon, owner of El Merkury in Rittenhouse Square, has encountered people who are reluctant to get a vaccine or who’ve spent so much time isolating that they’re nervous about reentry. She’s not sure that will dissipate anytime soon. “We’ll see what happens,” she said, “but I think it might be a little scary if the world turns into a party after the vaccine.”

Small World Seafood wholesaler turned retailer Robert Amar isn’t sure he’ll ever be able to take in a crowded restaurant or movie theater — buzzing with energy and excitement — the same way again. “The trauma is going to take us a long time, and some things are just going to be permanent.”

But some of us may be more ready to move forward.

Fergie’s owner Fergus Carey was giddy when he got his first shot the other week. He texted with his staff and imagined a world where everyone can come back to work safely. His spirits have been buoyed further by the CDC’s latest guidelines.

“We’re ready for this,” Carey said. “It’s coming.”

The verdict is still out on whether vaccinated people can transmit the coronavirus. If it turns out they pose a low risk, will masks be phased out?

Ni suspects the requirement might be dropped as soon as this fall, especially if public pressure mounts. “You’re already getting the, ‘Oh, but I can’t understand you.’ ... When there are vaccines and whatnot, what’s your excuse?”

While masks have become a national point of contention, some have come to appreciate them, too — whether as a kind of security blanket or a way to avoid a cold.

For vaccinated servers, unmasked customers “will be an easier pill to swallow,” said Qamara Edwards, business and events director for the Sojourn Philly restaurant group, “but I don’t think anyone’s gonna want to take off their mask until they know for a fact we have herd immunity in place.”

“I wouldn’t work without a mask until there’s guidelines — the CDC, local government, etc. — saying that it’s OK,” said Sam Klossner, a bartender at Loco Pez in Fishtown. He looks forward to when he can show off his beard again, but he’s not in a rush to unmask. “It doesn’t bother me at all at this point.”

Meanwhile, operators will have to think through public perception, which skews both ways: “There are aggressive mask wearers, and then there’s [willful] non-mask wearers. So there’s no win-win,” said Thane Wright, who owns Bower Cafe in Washington Square West. He wonders if maskless service might deter some customers unless they know the coffee shop’s staff is vaccinated.

Wright hopes the government will roll out regulated signage for establishments to indicate if staff is fully vaccinated — not only to allow staff to work unmasked, but also to reassure worried patrons. “I feel like customers would be more comfortable walking into the space and knowing that,” he said.

The pandemic accelerated trends that were already on the rise, including ghost kitchens and the shift to online platforms. Most restaurants have had to pay closer attention to their websites and social media presences during this time. Many had to sign on with an online point-of-sale system like Toast or Square. And some operators realized that — plus a commissary kitchen — might be all they really need to function, forgetting the storefront altogether.

In some instances, digital ordering has improved service. No more standing in line to order a couple beers at the bar. Instead, tap your selections online and a server will drop them off in minutes. When you’re ready to close out your tab, just settle up on your phone. No waiting necessary.

Elsewhere, though, one misses the interaction with a server who shares insights or makes recommendations. Fine dining and even mom-and-pop spots don’t feel the same when they’re smartphone-reliant.

» READ MORE: Here are technologies that restaurants are using to survive COVID-19 and the winter

“I do really feel that people long for that server,” Edwards said. She points to Jet Wine Bar’s current setup, a QR-code menu plus tableside service, as the best of both worlds. “I think you’re going to find more of the hybrid model. I don’t know if a lot of people are going to be printing actual menus.”

Takeout and delivery, now entrenched in the broader restaurant community, likely aren’t going anywhere either.

“Let’s be frank, why wouldn’t you want to be able to take a margarita on your walk with your dog?” asked Klossner. He thinks some takeout options might let some nervous customers stay home longer, but more will be undeterred — especially once Philadelphians can order drinks without food and pony up to the bar again. “That is going to be one of the big filters we’re taking off,” he said.

» READ MORE: Pa. easing restrictions on restaurants, Gov. Wolf says

It’s unclear if the service industry made much progress for workers’ rights this year. Organizing efforts at a handful of Philly restaurants saw mixed results, with some shuttering rather than meet workers’ demands and others incorporating service fees to do so. (Several establishments have implemented 18-20% automatic gratuity on checks, at least for now.)

At the same time, some owners report trouble finding staff — an indication that workers are leaving the industry, or that current wages and conditions aren’t persuasive enough to compete with unemployment.

“It’s become more difficult for both sides,” said Patti Brett, the now one-woman force behind Doobies bar in Graduate Hospital, alluding to operators and workers trying to meet their respective obligations.

Unpredictability suffuses everything: “Pre-pandemic, you would always have a rough idea of what you’re going to go home with. And now, who knows?” Brett said. “And then what happens when somebody in the restaurant gets sick and the place has to shut down, and there goes your income?”

“It’s a big push-and-pull of what is right for the business, but how can we take care of our staff members with the limited money we have?” said Edwards, who’s also president of the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Philadelphia chapter. “I think people still don’t realize that restaurants operate on a 3-5% profit margin. It is one of the lowest profit margins of any business in the country.”

But that figure has gotten more media coverage this year, as did stagnant wages, the absence of benefits, and questionable work environments. Whether that attention will lead to real change is unknown, but it could be a start.

“One of the biggest things that the pandemic did was reveal the cracks in the industry, where we do have shortcomings in terms of the pay gap, in terms of structure” said Jen Choi, co-owner of Crunchik’n in Midtown Village and Ocean City. “It’s both good and bad. You can’t fix the bad unless you see the ugly first.”

“I think, for a lot of people, there is more agency. If you’re saying the phrase, ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing that,’ that goes a long way nowadays,” Klossner said. “But I think as an industry, there’s still a lot of work to do.”

» READ MORE: Philly restaurant workers are organizing for higher wages and better work conditions despite the pandemic

The last year brought progress and loss in almost equal measure. Many restaurants closed, but even more of them adapted. We might lament what was, but we’ll come through on the other side with innovations and some improvements.

“I’ve learned to be more open to different ideas,” said Brett, who built out a to-go cocktail program that she never would have envisioned for her shot-and-a-beer bar. Takeout has made Doobies more accessible to families; parents stop by to pick up drinks or dinner as they walk their kids home from school. She also learned “if I need to take some mental health time, take it. The bar is gonna be there tomorrow — maybe a little poorer, but it’ll still be there.”

Choi changed the menu at Crunchik’n in unexpected ways, too, occasionally adding kimchi jjigae stew to its Korean fried chicken lineup. “It’s sold out every time we put it on the menu,” she said. “There are so many things in Korean cuisine that I want to be able to explore and share with our customers that I normally wouldn’t have if it weren’t for COVID.” She’s planning a series called “Finding my Seoul” to highlight other traditional dishes.

Choi also cites collaboration and deepened relationships as another positive outcome of the pandemic: “People are looking out for each other. They’re understanding that we’re not going to get through this unless we get through it together.”

“Local collaboration, that’s how we’re surviving,” Wright said. He started featuring other retailers’ goods in a small market inside Bower Cafe. “We cross-promote on our social platforms. I carry their product in the shop, which draws their customers to my shop and then my customers to their shops. People would never have thought to do that before, which is silly, but it’s true.”

Even an already thriving restaurant corridor like Midtown Village saw more togetherness. When 13th Street began closing to traffic in the late summer and restaurant seating took over the street, “you would see everybody in the neighborhood outdoors every day. And it was massive camaraderie and cajolery,” Carey said. “That part was really, really sweet and fun.” He hopes that atmosphere can be preserved post-pandemic.

One final thing that might emerge: more conscientious customers.

Amar, who’s sold everything from striped bass to puff pastry and escargot to customers in the last year, wonders if those home cooks will be as content with restaurant food going forward. “Consumers have become so savvy, they’ve become so capable at cooking, that they’re going to start making comparisons that someone who’s in the industry makes,” he said, alluding to the cost difference between a high-quality homemade meal and one from a downtown bistro. “Are restaurants ready for this kind of clientele?”

Deleon wonders about a different kind of discerning customer. “It’s so hard to pick a restaurant now, so many more decisions go into choosing where you want to eat: Who is doing the right thing and treating their employees well?” she said.

“I hope that really translates to people making their choices differently, and not just [supporting] the glitzier, bigger, better-funded places.”