New normal a lot like the old

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This article was published 21/06/2020 (2089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jayme Grime, Sofia Gebru and two of their other cousins laughed over food and drinks at Stella’s Cafe on Sherbrook Street Sunday afternoon as part of their renewed weekly tradition — girl’s night followed by a group brunch

“We wanted to all go out as a family… we wanted to go out and enjoy a meal together — it’s very beautiful outside,” Grime said, grinning.

The café around them bustled with activity Sunday; patrons huddled around every other table inside the restaurant as families and friends took advantage of the nice weather and reopened dining room to celebrate Father’s Day or share a meal between friends.

For the restaurant, Sunday marked a new checkpoint in the gradual return to normalcy as the province entered the third phase of its reopening plan, further easing back pandemic restrictions. Under the new guidelines, restaurants are allowed to operate at full capacity, though tables must stay either two-metres apart from each other or separated by barriers.

Every other table at Stella’s was marked as reserved, leaving enough room for physical distancing between groups, though no barriers were up in the space.

For patrons, the cleaning regimen and distanced tables were enough for the space to feel safe for a sit down meal. Grime and Gebru had been frequenting patios for their weekend get togethers, but were happy to start dining-in again, noting that the tables had been wiped right before their arrival and they felt comfortable with the spacing of the seating.

“I think we’ve been so suppressed for so long that at some point you do need to go out and get some fresh air,” Gebru said.

Still, for some restaurants the change in rules won’t make much of a difference in day-to-day operations. Several restaurants — which were slammed with Father’s Day brunch crowds — told the Free Press Sunday that they hadn’t been able to buy dividers for the Phase 3 kickoff, and some added they weren’t planning on spending the extra cash to get them.

At Falafel Place in Corydon, reaching full capacity is impossible while still following physical distancing rules, said manager Jarrett Bargen.

“For a little restaurant like us, nothing will change because we have only seven tables set up and they’re two metres apart or more, but we can’t just logistically fit any more tables in here with that amount of space,” Bargen said Sunday.

Bargen said business was steady Sunday — as is tradition for the restaurant on Father’s Day — but some groups weren’t able to be accommodated during peak times thanks to the table-spacing requirements, meaning a slight hit in the day’s total income.

“We’re very thankful to the customers for being so loyal but it definitely hurts people sitting in,” Bargen said.

“There was a couple groups that were waiting for maybe 10 minutes and they just had to leave today because with only seven tables there was a little bit of a line. It’s hard to seat everybody without them turning away if they don’t want to wait.”

Installing plexiglass dividers to set up more booths isn’t something Bargen has considered yet, due in part to the cost and in part to the quick turnaround between the province’s announcement and the start of phase three.

“For some restaurants maybe, the bigger ones with more overhead capital, but for us that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a thing,” Bargen said of the divider’s feasibility.

Restaurants aren’t the only businesses getting closer to normal this week; non-smoking bingo halls and video lottery terminal lounges can also open for the first time in months, at 50 per cent capacity. Daycare centres and retail stores can return to normal capacity, and people arriving in Manitoba from the other western provinces, northern territories and northwestern Ontario no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Larger public gatherings are also allowed. Instead of a cap of 25 people indoors and 50 people outdoors, people can fill up to 30 per cent of the capacity of any venue as long as they can be split into groups of 50 indoors or 100 outdoors. Each group must be able to enter and exit separately.

Manitoba health officials reported that no new cases of COVID-19 had been reported as of Sunday morning, keeping the number of cases in Manitoba at 313. Last week, 10 cases of COVID-19 were detected in the province.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

—with files from Laurie Bailey