On a slush-soaked night in late January, the chef Melissa Rodriguez is sitting in Bar Pisellino, sipping a Negroni and thinking about what diners might want from restaurants right now. “Some people want to go out and feel taken care of,” she muses.

“Other people are afraid to go out, but they don’t want to cook for themselves. A lot of people want an escape, and a lot of other people want something that’s very familiar,” she concludes. “Everything is polar opposites.”