Fun fact -- a handful of years ago, I met Bobby Marcotte while we were judging a pizza contest at the Children Museum of New Hampshire in Dover. I knew of Bobby in general from being the owner of Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery in Raymond, but I got to actually know him a decent amount that night and realized that outside of being insanely successful, he's also an insanely solid human.

So since that night, I've been a wicked Bobby fan. Any time he pops up on Food Network, I geek out a bit (I'd like to think in more of a friend way instead of a "fangirl" way, but let's be real -- it's probably both.) And anytime he pops up on my social media feeds, I pay attention to what he has to say. Which is why I did a double take when I came across this post:

Here's the thing -- he's 100% right. We're all guilty of doing this, and I mentioned this in an article the other day about that Massachusetts contractor demanded that he and his crew decorate a Reading, Mass woman's yard for Christmas for free after seeing a Facebook post -- we're notorious for seeing a post about someone or something (like a business) in need, and we "LIKE" or "LOVE" or "SHARE" it and go about our merry day feeling like we did something, but in actuality, what HAVE we done?

Sure, we "share" the post to spread the word and get it out, but what does that do? If people see that there's an issue that needs tending to, and the spread the word but that's all that's ever done, what does that do for the people in need? And I keep saying "we" because I'm guilty of it, too. We all are.

But Bobby SO dead on with this. We need to do more to help each other out. I came across Bobby's post about this on his Instagram, actually, and shared it to my Instagram story. Bobby is talking about going to actually support these local restaurants now and in person, but you have to remember -- if you're not comfortable with going out to a restaurant to eat right now, it's understandable, but you can STILL support them!

Order food! Go pick it up! Ask if they do curbside pick up! And there's always the GrubHub/Doordash/Postmates/Takeout Guys options. You don't have to physically sit down inside of a local restaurant in order to be able to support them -- you can still purchase their food and eat it safely in the comfort of your own home.

They all need our legitimate support right now. Think of how many iconic Boston restaurants have had to close up shop because of everything going on right now. BOSTON! One of the major cities of the country. If BOSTON restaurants are taking as big of a beating as they are, imagine the "smaller guys" in the smaller cities.

Now is our time to step up and help them. I'm not saying drain your bank account or order food from them every day of the week, but I've said for WEEKS that no one supports their family like we do in New England -- so if we're able to do it, let's do it. Instead of ordering from that chain pizza shop, let's order some LOCAL deliciousness from our family of restaurants around us.

Because like Bobby said -- we don't want the next announcements for our favorite spots, most of which do a lot of good in the community, too, to be "Hey we have to close because of COVID" and then "Hey, sorry, we can't reopen ever, thanks for the years of support and stuff."

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