With safety measures obligated to ramp up because of the current pandemic, restaurants are now crafting their personal touches to stay relevant in the business while practicing the necessary precautions needed to help combat the alarming crisis.

Some restaurants, however, seems to have fun with their measure. Not necessarily putting the pandemic as a laughing matter, sometimes people need a few smiles here and there – something to cheer up while we continue to fight this.

Here’s something that The Inn at Little Washington, a luxurious restaurant in Washington, United States has been doing. In the spirit of their classy 1940s set-up, they have installed people to sit in each table to encourage social distancing inside the establishment.

In case you were wondering why having more people sit inside the restaurant would qualify as social distancing, the biggest surprise here is that all of them are mannequins. All dressed in 1940s coat and gowns.

If sitting alongside a mannequin is something that disturbs you, The Inn at Little Washington is not the place for you. If you don’t mind, then this could be your initial test in a “new normal” practice that will be conducted for quite a time.

In an interview, The Inn at Little Washington’s proprietor and chef Patrick O’Connell has mentioned that “reducing the restaurant’s occupancy by half – by filling it with interestingly dressed dummies or mannequins – is the obvious solution.”

The decision also allows more space between the guests and who knows, some of them might smile by the idea and quickly snap for fun photo ops.

O’Connell, who was a recipient of the James Beard Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award and won the National Humanities Medial in 2019, jokingly stated that while “we’re all craving to gather and see other people now, all of them don’t necessarily need to be real, actual people.”

What are your thoughts on The Inn at Little Washington’s usage of mannequins as a safety measure? Share your reactions in the comments section below.