| Hey everyone, We continue to hit new records in coronavirus cases and continue to wait for federal aid. But I'd like a take a moment to instead think about fancy dining pods. Back in the summer, reservations platform Resy and its parent credit card company, American Express, helped fund an effort to give modular outdoor dining structures to hard-hit restaurants, focusing first on New York's Chinatown. It saved restaurants with no support thousands of dollars. Now they are supplying restaurants with outdoor dining structures once again, but with a different flavor. A few weeks ago, the companies gave over 100 luxury yurts to 13 buzzy and high-end restaurants across the country and "winter patios" to two restaurants run by the investor-friendly Major Food Group in New York, so long as the restaurants create special menus for the diners there and only open the experiences up to AmEx card holders. In cities where indoor dining is closed, some restaurants have become defacto AmEx-only operations. It's obviously not the most efficient or equitable way to pump ~$2 million — a conservative estimate based on what yurt recipients tell me but AmEx didn't want to provide a number — in "support" to restaurants. But AmEx is a credit card company, not a charity. Its goal is to provide exclusive experiences for its customers, even, I suppose, during a pandemic. And it just so happens to be offering a lifeline to some (connected and in some cases well-financed) restaurants along the way. Reps say the companies wanted to "extend and support existing chef and restaurant partnerships" in choosing which restaurants got their support and they have other programs that are more far-reaching. But it does seem another reminder that the restaurant business (like so many others) is really all about relationships and access. Just as getting the PPP paperwork through quickly or the phone call from ReThink might take knowing the right people, so does getting yurt money (and bonus decorating budget). I tried out the yurt at Crown Shy in New York and it was (predictably) fantastic and cozy and infinitely warmer — with multiple heaters, blankets, and shearling throws — than the meal I had the next week, on another 37-degree night, on an outdoor patio, bundled up in front of an electric heater. I'm curious: If you're a restaurant owner, would you want a yurt? If you're a diner going out right now, would you eat in one? Alternately, who would you give one to? I'm amanda@eater.com. | 
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