Restaurants mull taking dine-in off menu

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This article was published 30/08/2021 (1282 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some Manitoba eateries are considering closing their doors to indoor dining Friday rather than alienate unvaccinated customers.

It’s a matter of principle, says Damian Penner, Steinbach city councillor and owner of Rocco’s Pizzeria: if the dining room isn’t open to everyone, it shouldn’t be open to anyone.

In the wake of new public health orders requiring, as of Sept. 3, restaurant-goers to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, Rocco’s will continue to offer take-out and delivery, Penner said.

But it won’t have people seated in the restaurant in the near future, despite the stance likely to cost about half of the Steinbach pizzeria’s business.

“It would be hard for us to stomach it, to say that,” he said Monday. “We want everybody, we want to be able to service everyone.

“But if we tell individuals, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t service you to the same level as other individuals,’ and then when everything does open up say, ‘Please support us again,’ it just doesn’t feel right to us.”

He said the restaurant has always followed public health restrictions and sees the decision to close its indoor space as going “over and above” the health order in an industry that hasn’t “had a lot of choices in the last year-and-a-half of how we’re able to operate.”

“Essentially, this isn’t about vaccinations, this isn’t about public health orders, this is just about respecting each individual,” Penner said.

In Winkler, owner of 1950s-style diner Twisters, Christine Kornelsen, said she’s considering doing the same because of a deepening divide within her community.

The Winkler health district has steadfastly posted the second-lowest vaccine uptake rate in the province, with 38.7 per cent of its population having received at least one dose.

According to provincial data, Steinbach has the eighth-lowest number of adults with at least one dose, at 60.5 per cent of the population. Comparatively, many Winnipeg health districts have uptake rates in the 80 per cent range.

“The segregation of the vaxxed versus the un-vaxxed, according to this vaccination order (announced Aug. 27), is already happening. People are already fighting,” Kornelsen said.

Twisters has been open for 29 years, and has taken financial hits during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said. A permanent closure may loom, Kornelsen said, should she decide to bar all dine-in options, which account for around 40 per cent of business.

She said she sees it as an issue of ethics: the province’s decision to “segregate” people based on immunization status will turn unvaccinated people away from frequenting local businesses even after the pandemic because of lasting resentment.

“What are you willing to sacrifice? That’s what every business owner is asking themselves right now. Am I willing to sacrifice my livelihood, that I might go under, in two months, three months… Or am I going to sacrifice the (support of) my customer base? Or am I going to sacrifice the health restrictions?” Kornelsen said.

“It’s not black and white.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_