Restaurants Are Back on the Vaccine Culture War’s Front Lines

Jennifer Vitagliano has been in perpetual pivot mode for over a year now. Since the start of the pandemic, the owner of the Michelin-starred Musket Room in Manhattan’s SoHo has hatched a delivery menu and a brunch menu to lure new customers and borrowed a 1962 van from a friend to sell doughnuts and cocktails in front of her eight-year-old restaurant, which is known for its inventive spin on new American dishes. Of all the flexes she’s made, playing bouncer has been the most exhausting.

In early June, after several Covid-19 cases hit the industry, Vitagliano and her business partners ...