Restaurant owners, staff relieved province didn’t shut down patios

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This article was published 25/04/2021 (1298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Restaurant owners are breathing a sigh of relief after Monday’s announced changes to public-health restrictions kept patio gatherings on the permitted list.

Rather than instate a full lockdown, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin announced private indoor and outdoor gatherings with people outside of your household will again be banned as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Outdoor gatherings up to 10 people in public places, however will still be allowed. As will gatherings of up to four people from different households on restaurant patios.

Chris Graves, owner of the King’s Head Pub in the Exchange District, said he lost sleep Sunday night anticipating Monday’s announcement, expecting an order that would shut down restaurants entirely. He was “pleasantly surprised” by the new order and said reducing the number of people at a patio table from six to four is a change he can handle.

Restaurants have been forced to act as an extension of bylaw enforcement in the time they’ve been open, Graves said, and figured their work as “a line of defence” was instrumental in the decision to let patios stay open.

“We’re kind of that extension of the government — they talk about enforcement, and how they don’t have enough people to enforce these rules — we’re already in public locations, we’re easily accessed by bylaw officers,” he said.

That said, he believes the province has lost control of outdoor gatherings and hasn’t done enough to close provincial borders. King’s Head staff turn away people with out-of-province identification every day.

Jay Kilgour runs two Fionn MacCool’s locations in the city, and said he thinks there may be a spike in business because people who want to get together but aren’t able to meet privately may head to a patio.

“I think it could be a win for us, for restaurants with patios,” he said. “I think we’re setting people up for a safe environment for them to meet in, with all the precautions we’re taking.”

He, too, had expected the worst, noting that he believed restaurants had been “scapegoated” early on, but called the current rules a “good balance.”

“They haven’t presented evidence to show us that it’s transmitting (in restaurants), that we’re responsible for a lot of the spread,” he said. “I think without that evidence, you need to leave some leniency for these local businesses and their workforce.”

The province has yet to release any epidemiologic data on the transmission of COVID-19 in restaurant spaces.

Workers in the industry would have nothing but Employment Insurance to fall back on if restaurants were shut down, he said. And while it’s enough for some on his staff to live on, it’s not nearly enough for many others.

“When you’re in a situation before the pandemic and you make financial commitments based on your income, not living beyond your means, and you get your whole livelihood taken from you through no fault of your own… we really aren’t all in this together,” he said.

Bar Italia managing partner Rhea Collison said while she was “elated” her Corydon eatery would be allowed to continue operating its patio, she doesn’t expect a spike in business.

“Frankly, you’re down to four people, still have to sign in for contract tracing, some people are still a little apprehensive about going out, unfortunately,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to change a lot for us.”

There’s been a fair amount of “unfounded” scrutiny on restaurants since the pandemic began, she said.

“Last year, my business incurred a lot of extra costs just having staff on hosting to make sure people are signing in and making sure they’re sitting and staying put, wearing a mask, running the gamut of all the rules, and I’m doing it again this year,” she said.

Her hope is that the few restaurants that do have patio space will be able to utilize them into the summer.

“I’m a fairly educated person, and a fairly logical person, and I sort of gave up on the logic stream of this a while ago,” she said. “I’ll just do what I have to do because I have to do it.”

 

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_