Safety or profit? Restaurant owners face tough choice
Establishments near virus hot spots mull locals-only dining policy
Some southern Ontario restaurants are making the tough financial choice to bar out-oftown customers from indoor dining as COVID-19 cases surge in nearby hot spots.
Ramshackle Industries, which owns four restaurants and bars in Stratford, Ont., first introduced the policy when restaurants reopened in June, slowly dialing it back as the pandemic waned this summer.
Now that the province has reintroduced tighter restrictions in Toronto, York and Peel regions and Ottawa amid the second wave of COVID-19, Ramshackle owner Jessie Votary said the rule is being enforced again.
Tourists are a “huge part” of the customer base in Stratford, especially in the summer months, but Votary said the safety of employees at the worker-owned businesses had to come first. “We want the people to come, we just are also wary and sensible about what potential infection of our team could mean, and what potential infection of our community could mean,” Votary said. The restaurants have been explaining the rules before seating customers, with staff checking IDs in a handful of cases, and some non-locals have been turned away from indoor dining.
Votary said reactions have ranged from understanding to upset. “We have people who throw up their hands and storm out, we have people who swear at the staff, but those people are merely showing we made the right decision to ask those questions,” she said.
Staff take a conversational approach to discussing the rule and they work to find alternatives for out-of-town customers, such as ordering takeout. “It really is about being pleasant humans,” Votary said. “It’s about setting boundaries and then having conversations.”
The City of Stratford opened an outdoor dining area this summer with space for 200 people to bring their food and alcohol from local restaurants, which helped Ramshackle restaurants direct visiting customers outside to enjoy their takeout.
While Ramshackle Industries was an early adopter of localonly dining rooms, other establishments already battered by the pandemic are taking a similar approach. The Ale House in
Cobourg, Ont., announced Wednesday it was limiting indoor service to locals in response to the restrictions on Toronto, which is an hour’s drive away. “It’s very difficult for me,” Owner Todd Oberholtzer said. “I was just hoping to do something for my community.”
Romby’s Tavern and Smokehouse in St. Catharines, Ont., announced a similar policy in an Oct. 9 Facebook post, saying proof of Niagara residency would be required to dine in “as an extra safety precaution for our staff, our customers and their loved ones.”
Earlier this week, gym chains L.A. Fitness and GoodLife Fitness asked their clients not to travel from Toronto and Peel Region to work out at open facilities nearby. GoodLife took the measure of freezing GoodLife members’ accounts in hot-zone regions on Oct. 10, preventing them from booking workouts in other areas.