Restaurants anxious to get the green light
Disappointed they aren’t allowed to open their patios this week, Niagara restaurant owners say they’re ready and waiting for the province to serve up good news.
The government is allowing many communities in Ontario to open outdoor dining areas at restaurants Friday, but Niagara is one of the regions excluded from the next phase of the provincial COVID-19 reopening plan.
“We were revved up to open, to be honest with you,” said Mario Ciccarelli, franchise owner of The Works in downtown St. Catharines.
“We thought we were going to be part of this Phase 2. We were really disappointed that Niagara got pegged.”
But Ciccarelli said the restaurant is moving forward and getting everything in place for when it is allowed to open.
He said it has removed 50 per cent of restaurant tables from the patio and interior, measuring six feet apart for social distancing. Staff have been trained on how to deal with guests under the new safety protocols.
“It’s a little disappointing but, hey, we move forward. When we do get the green light, which we think is just around the corner anyway, then we’ll be ready with the patio,” he said.
Welland’s M.T. Bellies is also preparing for reopening when the word comes down.
“We’ll be ready,” said owner John Clark. “We’ve been sitting here for the last two and a half months waiting for this time frame to happen. Hopefully, we get the nod next week.”
Clark said his business has a plan, including placing proper signage in the building and on the floor, spacing tables apart and adding new protocols for how staff function with personal protective equipment.
“There’s a whole lot of moving parts so there’s a lot of training that goes along with it,” he said.
Clark said M.T. Bellies has submitted a plan to the municipality to extend its patio a few feet to allow for four to six more tables to meet social distancing requirements.
Welland city council on Tuesday night was scheduled to discuss allowing restaurants to install temporary patios on their property and city sidewalks and streets to accommodate spacing out of patrons.
St. Catharines city council asked staff last week to look at closing St. Paul Street and consider other areas to allow restaurants to expand patios as well.
That’s something Ciccarelli would love to see on James Street so The Works patio could spill onto the street, allowing for more tables with social distancing rules.
Kully’s Original sports bar owner Adrian Kulakowsky said it’s a great idea to expand onto St. Paul Street. He said one of the biggest questions is what percentage of occupancy it will be able to operate at when things open, but the eatery is anxious to get going regardless of what the restrictions are.
Like others, he was disappointed Niagara wasn’t moving ahead with Stage 2 this Friday.
“Didn’t think Niagara would be grouped in with the GTA, but we definitely plan on opening as soon as we’re given the green light,” he said.
St. Catharines city Couns. Mat Siscoe and Karrie Porter, whose St. Patrick’s ward includes the downtown and its many restaurants, are calling on the province to reassess its plan for Niagara.
“We heard from a few businesses who are absolutely disappointed by this news and they’re businesses that are just barely hanging on,” Porter said Tuesday. She said she’s also concerned that if restaurants go under, it will lead to a domino effect of other downtown businesses closing as well.
“It’s taken us so long to build and revitalize the downtown over the last 20 years, I just don’t want to see all that work disappear.”
Porter said there are other measures the government can take to support the safe reopening of the economy, such as paid sick leave and mandatory masks in certain areas and spaces.