Restaurant owners in St. Albert are planning to reopen on Thursday, while others are deciding to postpone dine-in service despite getting a green light from the province.
On Monday, the Alberta government introduced an online portal called ‘Biz Connect’, which lists all the policies and procedures businesses must follow to address COVID-19 concerns. Stage one sectors include daycares, restaurants, retail, hair salons and barbershops.
Tandoori Fuzion is one of the city's restaurants planning to allow sit-in meals by the end of this week.
Encouraged by the drop in the number of cases seen so far, owner Naveen Saggi said he feels confident the restaurant can reopen dine-in service while keeping staff and customers safe. Since the onset of the pandemic, the Indian restaurant has seen a 25-per-cent drop in sales.
"The economy has drastically changed and we have to reopen businesses," Saggi said.
"It's very unfortunate that this happened, and everyone is suffering. But I would say, hope for the best, and we should come out of this very soon."
Tables will be spaced out in the restaurant to accommodate social distancing, stations will be sanitized, and gloves and masks will be available to servers. Thermometers have been ordered so staff can take the temperature of everyone coming in to eat.
Now it's just a matter of whether or not people will feel safe to return in this 'new normal', Saggi said.
"They have to come and see what procedures each restaurant is using. I think two weeks after opening on May 14, then it will be clear (how confident customers feel)."
Some restaurant owners are holding off on reopening until they feel prepared and safe to do so.
Tu Le, co-owner of Jack's Burger Shack, said looking over the province's guidelines only reinforced their decision to keep their dining area closed.
"We're a 20-seat restaurant and having two metres between the tables, and having a proper pathway for people to walk to the bathroom and walk up to order – it just wouldn't work. We're too small of a space," Le said.
The province's guidelines seem to be built to suit bigger restaurant chains that have more space to work with than small mom-and-pop shops, he said, but he's OK with continuing the take-out and delivery model if it remains to be the safest option.
"In South Korea, one infected man went to a bar and infected 85 people. That's unreal," he said.
"As the stages start progressing, we'll see how the spread goes, see if there's a vaccine hopefully, and then maybe we can (reopen). But right now, I don't think we should have people dining in."
Holly Estacio, assistant general manager at XIX Nineteen, said the restaurant will also hold off on reopening their 100-seat dining area.
With provincial guidelines released days before May 14, there simply wasn't enough time to put a sustainable, safe plan in place. Even when the province's relaunch strategy was first announced, Estacio said she was "shocked" to hear restaurants would be included in the first phase.
"On the news, everyone was saying that there's a second wave that we haven't actually seen yet. So when I heard that, I was very concerned that once the government allows us to reopen, and the second wave hits, we'll probably have to shut down again."
It will take time to get the proper equipment and procedures in place to follow provincial guidelines, and Estacio said the restaurant would rather wait and see than rush into reopening.
"We do want to reopen eventually, but we want to make sure that we know the guidelines are straight. We want to know that when we bring our staff back that they're not going to get sick, and that the customers aren't going to get sick. We want everyone to feel comfortable being there."
