There were a couple of nice surprises with my takeout at American Social, the still-new sports bar and restaurant on Sand Lake Road.

The first surprise was a 20 percent discount for picking the order up at curbside and not having it delivered through a third party app service. As you may – and should – know, most of the gig delivery operations take 30 percent of the restaurant’s billing. So it’s nice that AmSo shares some of that savings with the customers.

Although Gov. Brian Kemp has given the go-ahead for Georgia restaurants to reopen to dine-in customers beginning Monday, not all restaurateurs are champing at the bit to fling open the doors just yet.

Among those who are taking a more cautious route is the Atlanta location of Hawkers Asian Street Fare. A message on the Orlando based chain’s Facebook page to its “ATL fam & beyond” said it will continue to offer takeout and delivery but the dining room would remain closed.

“While there is nothing we would love more than to see all of your smiling faces as we share good food and catch up on even better conversation,” the post read, “we have made the decision to keep our dining room temporarily closed.

“The health & safety of our team members and guests remains our top priority, so we feel it’s best to continue offering only takeout & delivery, until we feel absolutely confident that it is safe to reopen our dining room.”

The Facebook post had 38 comments as of Monday morning, all of them applauding the restaurant’s decision.

Restaurants that do reopen must follow a list of 39 guidelines that include screening employees, who must wear masks, for fevers and other signs of illness, limiting capacity to no more than 10 diners per 500 square feet, and not allowing tables of more than six people. Self-service salad and condiment bars are out.

Besides restaurants, the governor’s order allowed the reopening of bowling centers, massage salons and, for some reason, tattoo parlors.

Curiously, the governor’s mansion remains closed for tours “out of an abundance of caution...to ensure the health and safety of Georgia families.”

Mark Angelo, right, with Todd Ulmer

Mark Robert Angelo, a proficient entrepreneur who opened dozens of bars and restaurants, most in downtown Orlando, died April 13 after a long bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 59.

Angelo was the owner, along with Todd Ulmer, of Beacon Hill Group. Their first bar together was Room 39, which opened in 2002. The two also owned Mucho Tequila and Tacos and were partners with Bernard Carmouche and Larry Sinibadi in Muddy Waters, the restaurant that replaced it. Stardust Lounge and Aku Aku Tiki Bar are two of their other concepts.

According to Ulmer, it was around the time when they opened Sonoma Draught House (now Stubborn Mule) in 2011 that Angelo was diagnosed with cancer and was given a prognosis of two to three years. He began researching alternative treatments and became an advocate in passing Florida’s Right to Try law, which allows patients to receive treatments not currently approved by the FDA. He had recently traveled to Germany for an experimental treatment but was unable to undergo it due to failing health.

Ulmer said the extra years allowed Angelo to watch his children, Briana and Mark Jr., grow. They, along with his wife, Lisa, survive him.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, services were private. The family plans to have a celebration of Angelo’s life at a future date.

Thanks to a donation by Tito’s Handmade Vodka, a local charity headed by restaurateur and bar owner Todd Ulmer is offering free meals to displaced hospitality workers, 100 meals on Sunday, April 26, and another 100 next Friday.

And Ulmer is looking to feed more.

Members of the Central Florida culinary and hospitality community has a long history of helping each other out. That used to mean loaning some ingredients to a neighboring restaurant that’s short on something for the evening’s service or cooking side by side at a gala dinner, helping to make each other’s dish look and taste great.

Now they’re trying to offer a meal to restaurant and bar workers who suddenly found themselves out of work and unable to get benefits through Florida’s intentionally insufficient system.

Since Ulmer has been involved in a number of downtown Orlando bars, including Stardust Lounge and Aku Aku Tiki Bar, a representative from Tito’s reached out to him and said the company would like to donate $1500 to Ulmer’s charity, the Richard Ulmer Fund, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit named for his father.

Ulmer got with Jason Lambert, a former partner who now owns the Hammered Lamb restaurant and bar in the Ivanhoe District, and asked him how many meals he could serve for $750 and not lose money. “The goal is not only to feed but [also] to support the closed down restaurants,” Ulmer said. He noted that even the restaurants that are still open for takeout and delivery are working with a skeleton crew – most of their own staff members on furlough – and barely breaking even. “We don’t expect restaurants to be donating food at this time.”