It's done, since yesterday, you can now have your meal in the dining room of your favorite restaurant. You must respect certain constraints, once again, but hope this opening will be the last for our restaurants. We'll explain why below. Also on the menu for this fast delivery, we offer you other brief news related to the industry that is so dear to us.
So, François Legault announced it last week, the dining rooms can once again welcome customers, at 50% of their capacity. The tables will only be able to accommodate one or two bubbles or even four people maximum.
The period to choose for the reopening is still interesting, given the upcoming presentation of the famous Super Bowl and the very famous Valentine's Day evening.
This reopening, the fourth since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, is a delight for people involved in the restaurant business, including owners, employees and suppliers. But these players now want an end to the yo-yo game with their industry and more predictability. The instability experienced for almost two years is difficult to manage for restaurateurs.
The government seems to forget that there is all the preparation behind a restaurant opening, such as ordering the merchandise, preparing the sauces and other basics, configuring the dining room according to the new restrictions and recalling laid-off employees.
On the other hand, some want the end of compulsory telecommuting, which would create the return of traffic in city centers. Until then, the schedules will be modified accordingly, in order to ensure a certain profitability and avoid bankruptcy.
It was time for the government to announce this reopening as the owners were growing impatient and we could feel the anger rising. This is the case of the now famous pastry chef from Jonquière who opened her dining room despite the ban.
For others, it was rather discouragement that was beginning to catch up with them. Making up for the loss of income due to the closure of their dining room by offering take-out meals, some have however given up on this idea. It is that the results were not large enough in relation to the workload required.
We are happy with the reopening of the dining rooms, but hope that this can be lived in the long term and that in a few months, the capacity will be able to reach 100 %...
