Cotton Tree will offer extra privacy
A LOT of changes have taken place to the interior of Enniscorthy’s Cotton Tree restaurant to get it ready for this week’s reopening phase.
Owner John Redmond, said ‘massive changes’ have taken place to enable the restaurant to welcome the public back in through its doors.
However, he also said everyone involved with the business is looking forward to welcoming customers back.
‘ The staff have all done their Covid training,’ said John.
‘We have compartmentalised the whole cafe into snugs and booths,’ he added.
‘It means families can come in and they will have their own booth or cubicle,’ he said.
John said the only concern is with regard to people queuing in the rain.
‘If it’s full and people are waiting outside in the rain, that’s an issue.’
‘We’re not sure what to do about that yet,’ he added. ‘It’s all so new and we hope people will be relaxed about it.’
John bought an €85 contactless thermometer last week and the staff will also have PPE while serving customers.
‘We already had a hand-washing regime in place anyway so that will continue,’ he said.
‘We always wash hands between customers and we will make masks available to customers if they are walking around,’ he added.
With regard to paying it’s hoped that people will opt for contactless rather than cash and even in that regard there will be protocols in place.
‘At the start we will bring people to tables,’ said John. ‘When it comes to paying we will bring the card machine to the tables.’
John also hopes that businesses might work together and that lunch breaks could be staggered between 12.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. so as to avoid long queues outside any restaurant of cafe.