Bumped up capacity hardly a boost to spirits

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This article was published 09/03/2021 (1698 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RECENTLY loosened COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have made “no difference” to a struggling industry, some local restaurant owners say.

The new rules, which came into effect March 5, allow restaurants to seat up to 50 per cent capacity, up from 25 per cent the previous three weeks.

However, tables must be separated — and groups limited to people who live together.

“It’s made zero difference,” Athina Parasidis, owner of Winnipeg diner the Nook, said Monday.

Parasidis said the eatery was having a rare busy morning, but already she’d had to separate a group of four: a father and son and two friends, who live in separate households. That meant two tables for four people each only sitting four in total.

The restaurant could serve up to 32 people under the new guidelines, she said, but in reality, distancing guidelines and the one-household rule limit customers to around 16.

Fionn MacCool’s owner Jay Kilgour echoed Parasidis.

“There’s no difference whatsoever,” he said Monday.

Except for Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, neither of Winnipeg’s two Fionn MacCool’s locations have hit even the 25 per cent mark since reopening for dine-in, he said, blaming the one-household-per-table restriction.

“I think people are a little tired of their households.”

While Kilgour said he understands the intent of the restriction, restaurants and staff suffer because of it.

“We would be more profitable at this point if we were just closed and doing takeout only,” he said. “But I don’t want to do that to our staff. They’re happy to be back to work.”

Mike Del Buono, owner of King + Bannatyne, said he won’t consider reopening for dine-in service until multiple households can sit at a table.

The over-the-counter lunch spot relies heavily on people working downtown or in the Exchange District. Since most co-workers live in separate households, many of clients couldn’t sit together anyway, he said.

A few restaurants did report boosts to business over the weekend, according Shaun Jeffrey of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association. Restaurants with VLT machines in particular have been able to cash in on the extra bodies through the door, he said.

But there’s no rosy picture of Manitoba’s restaurants — everyone is struggling, Jeffrey said.

“We’re barely hanging on by our teeth here, and we’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said. “To say that (restaurants) are stressed out, there is an understatement.”

Restaurants want restrictions to be more consistent across all industries, Jeffrey said, pointing out retail stores don’t need to check people entering together live together.

Most disappointing, said Jeffrey, is the apparent lack of collaboration between government departments, and industry, in drafting public health restrictions.

One bright spot: the province rescinded an order March 5 that had restaurant staff check customers’ identification to enforce the one-household rule.

Jeffrey said the rule discriminated against those without drivers licences and those with IDs without addresses (status cards and passports) and put staff in awkward positions.

Restaurants must still record the names of patrons, and groups must declare with signatures or IDs that they live together in order to be seated together.

The current restrictions will remain in effect through March 25.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca