The Urban Dictionary has a new word: Streatery.

Without large amounts of thought because of your personal pandemic experience, you can surmise the derivation of the word. Throughout this country, restaurants have survived by creatively co-opting concrete and asphalt – space previously assigned to pedestrians, street-side parking spots, and cars – into outdoor dining space for their customers. While this phenom has been ubiquitous in Europe, where intercity space is at a premium, it has not been the custom in the wide open spaces of America.

My personal pet peeve is the prime asphalt parking spaces, so near to the restaurants’ doors, that were purloined by Door Dash, a food delivery service to family abodes that my husband and I never used. While pandemic issues have receded, the spaces haven’t been returned to use for all in local parking lots. Now that I’m ‘older’ I covet parking proximate to business entrances… holy crap! Not cool when one is carrying heavy bags of groceries out of Trader Joe’s!

I do not feel kindly to Door Dash because I cannot dash to-from my parked car at a shopping center – crap!

These co-options swiftly became permanent and restaurants flourished, but in our densely-population suburbs cars are too close to patrons’ noses with their smoggy exhaust. Isn’t that antithesis to fine dining, peeps? What flavors can be improved by gas, oil, and exhaust? Let alone allergy provocation and breathing unsafe air?!

While it’s lovely, I don’t want this ‘new normal’. I favor the way it used to be, pre-pandemic, please.

My rant exhausted, I must admit that the word ‘streatery’ is my favorite word birthed by the pandemic.