Some establishments are hopeful next week's expected announcement will allow in-person, indoor dining sooner, others expect it will take more time.
Article content
Managers at Tap & Barrel-affiliated restaurants have been busy hiring and training staff at their locations around Vancouver in anticipation of a reopening of indoor dining, though CEO Daniel Frankel isn’t placing bets on exactly when that will be.
“If you look at it historically, if you look at every decision Dr. Bonnie (Henry) has made, they haven’t been easy to guess,” said Frankel, who heads the seven-property Tap & Barrel Group.
And Tuesday, Premier John Horgan didn’t offer a more definitive date other than “we will give as much notice as we can” about the end of the so-called “circuit breaker” restrictions, including indoor, in-person restaurant dining announced March 29.
“I want people to understand, though, that we are not out of this yet,” Horgan said, and the restrictions will remain in place until next week.
On Monday, Henry cautioned people to “not expect to see one day everything is going to come back.”
Advertisement
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
The order was first in place until April 19, but extended to May 25 as COVID-19 infection rates declined, but remained uncomfortably high.
However, with new daily infections dropping to 411 on Tuesday, active cases declining to 4,890, and vaccination rates rising with appointments open to everyone over 18, pressure is also increasing to lift those restrictions.
That, however, will be done “slowly and gradually,” Henry said, with pauses to guard against a resurgence of infections.
Opposition critic Todd Stone, on Tuesday, called on government to lay out a restart plan as soon as it can, repeating the call the B.C. Liberals have been making for months.
“If you’re a restaurant or a tourism operator or, for that matter, someone in the live events sector, you can’t just be told on a Friday, ‘Hey, good news, you can now resume operations on the following Monday,” said Stone, critic for jobs, economic recovery and innovation and MLA for Kamloops South-Thompson.
Some establishments have approached that news more hopefully. Published on Main sent an email notice to customers on Monday inviting those who lost reservations to rebook on or after May 26, though with “fingers crossed.”
“Please keep in mind that we will not be able to guarantee these reservations until there is an official announcement from the provincial government,” the email reads. Management did not respond to Postmedia requests for an interview before deadline.
Advertisement
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
That, however, sounds “highly optimistic” to Ian Tostenson, CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Food Service Association, who hasn’t received a definitive signal about opening during consultations with Henry’s office.
Industry representatives have pushed the province on giving restaurants enough lead time to prepare for reopening, Tostenson said, at least 10 days’ advance notice. He thinks the province is being cautious to avoid creating false hope.
“This is where it gets hard for us to counsel the industry,” Tostensen said. “I would be prepared to open on the 26th, but be prepared not to open. … Then the question remains when, and it’s probably within a week of that, at least.”
Frankel said his group’s properties, which include three Tap & Barrel locations, Bridges on Granville Island and Brewhall on East Second Avenue in Vancouver, aren’t taking reservations for indoor dining just yet.
However, they have started hiring for the eventual reopening in anticipation that ramping operations back up will be more difficult than closing down.
“I think once things open up, certainly for the first few weeks, it’s going to be very hard to scale up,” Frankel said.
Hiring will be another issue, following the latest shutdown of indoor dining that threw a wrench into expectations for spring.
“We went hard on hiring right before the latest set of (provincial health orders), anticipating a great spring season,” Frankel said. “And lo and behold, we’ve had no spring season, certainly not indoors.”
His company is fortunate to have some of the largest patios in Vancouver and North Vancouver, but Frankel said the properties are still operating on less than 50 per cent capacity.
Without the pandemic, Tap & Barrel group would have up to 1,200 staff on payroll, he said. Now it has about 800.
— With files from Katie DeRosa
Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday by subscribing to our Sunrise newsletter here.
COVID: B.C. restaurants place bets on when indoor-dining restrictions will lift - Vancouver Sun
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment