Some thoughts from observing this board, social media, and what’s going on out there:
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As others have said, buy gift certificates of your favorite restaurants and establishments. Assuming things are in the clear, you can redeem them in the future or just use them if placing orders online.
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Order take out from them, e.g. if they are partnered with the likes of UberEats, Postmates, GrubHub, Yelp Delivery apps if you want to spice things up at home and don’t want to cook yourself.
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Or old school pick up the phone and place an order with them either delivery or pickup yourself. Tip your delivery driver well. Ditto for restaurant folks if they’re doing the delivery and not through a 3rd party. The advantage of this is that you have more control over the menu in the ordering process than what the food delivery apps have listed. Especially true for Chinese restaurants that are flexible with certain combinations/custom orders that their menu might not have. e.g. bell pepper wet chow fun vs beef chow fun (dry fry).
Many restaurants in my area have already started migrating towards options 2 and 3 and informing through social media, in case people forgot about takeout and delivery. Even a favorite ramen shop thought about how to do takeout properly and is executing it.
- Continue to visit the establishments in person, which will still come at a cost or risk (even before you reach the restaurant), not just your health but the social aspect of it and judgement of others for breaking social distancing norms to slow down the spreading and endangering others. If you must, find a better time to go when it’s less busy. Pretty sure that favorite and well known neighborhood place of yours has already socialized the fact they are spending more time cleaning and using industrial grade cleaners and sanitizing, unless it’s a greasy hole in the wall joint.
Last but not least, take pictures of your great looking delivery food (tag the restaurant of course) and share to give people ideas of what they can order and eat instead of stashes of hoarded Costco instant noodles and spam (which eventually may result in quicker consumption of their hoarded Costco toilet paper).