CHAOS AND PUB CRAWLS
Publicans and restaurateurs warn post-Covid plan for €9 meals and 105-minute limit causing confusion
POST-Covid restrictions will see myriad rules for customers in pubs, it emerged late last night.
Pub owners learned that they can now allow people on their premises for 105 minutes, instead of 90, when they open in 11 days’ time.
However, they will still have to provide a meal costing at least €9.
And they will be required to keep the name and contact details of the person who books the table in case it is required for contact tracing in the future, adding to the staffing and administration costs.
Pub owners were given some relief when Fáilte Ireland published their guidelines late last night, revealing that social distancing could be reduced to one metre, but they were puzzled as to why this was being linked to the new 105-minute time limits for customers on the premises.
The guidelines also state that customers must book in, in advance, killing off the walk-in trade, and that their time would be limited to a maximum of 105 minutes duration – on top of this there should be
‘Is there any science behind it?’
RESTAURANT bookings are flooding in – but owners have queried ‘bizarre’ and ‘confusing’ draft guidelines which will limit customers to pre-booked, 90-minute meals.
The condition applies to restaurants who want to reduce the distance between tables to one metre, rather than two.
Adrian Cummins, of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), said the reduction in social distancing proposed by Fáilte Ireland, based on advice from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) was ‘hugely positive’.
‘It’s a game changer for our sector. Now let’s get this into the public domain, so we can get our businesses open as quickly as possible, and bring our food to our customers,’ he said.
But he said there remained a lot of unanswered questions that needed swift answers so businesses could make plans to reopen on June 29.
He said the RAI was in talks with Fáilte Ireland to increase the time people can enjoy their meals from 90 minutes to two hours.
‘We think that is where we need to get to. If we can get this over the line we can get going,’ Mr Cummins said.
Fáilte Ireland said it had received detailed guidance from the HPSC entitled ‘COVID-19: Guidance for Food Service Businesses’, and that it was working through the document in consultation with officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport to seek clarity on some aspects.
Galway chef JP McMahon, culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group, including Michelin-star winning Aniar, Cava Bodega, and Tartare Café and Wine Bar, said: ‘It seems to get more confusing and more bizarre the closer we get to opening. Each new guideline brings more and more questions.
‘I’m delighted it’s one metre, but it’s one metre with conditions. The difficulty is this 90 minutes. Why was 90 minutes chosen? Is there any science behind it? Why not two hours? I thought the idea was to get less people on to the premises.
‘Doing seatings every hour and a half creates a very busy restaurant. And I think it’s not fair to customers to ask them to come for less of an experience, unless it’s quite a casual restaurant.’
Mr McMahon said he felt there had been ‘no dialogue with the industry at all’. ‘It feels like these are just orders from above. If two people leave and two people replace them, is that contact? How do you get people out of the restaurant – some aren’t very large?’ he asked.
He also queried what he should do about walk-in customers – turn them away, or book them in on the spot.
He said that two of his premises were around 60% booked up already. The third, Aniar, will not yet open, partly because its main trade is with American tourists, and partly because meals there are usually savoured for at least three hours.
Asked if 90 minutes could work for restaurants, celebrity head chef Dylan McGrath, of Fade Street Social in Dublin, replied: ‘No.’
He explained: ‘We are selling people an experience, and that includes their time at the restaurant. They want their night out. Ninety minutes is a strain. Two and a half hours would be more like it.
‘Rushing them through in 90 minutes – I’m not optimistic about it.’
Marian Canavan, of Kariba’s Restaurant and Coffee House in Ballinasloe, said her issue was with having to take bookings for lunchtime diners. ‘People don’t make bookings here. It’s a neighbourhood haunt. People pop in and pop out.
‘We are definitely going to lose footfall – it’s off putting,’ she said.
‘And I don’t see the logic behind it. Why does it make any difference if they have booked or not?
‘I just don’t think this is a onesize fits all rule.’
Fusion restaurant in Roscommon
described the guidelines as ‘farcical’ in a social media post. It wrote: ‘Who books to go for a coffee? Why the difference? A table of 2,4,6 booked or walk-in is still the same. Do we tell them no but to go outside and ring us and we’ll take you?’
The Wild Goose Grill in Ranelagh, Dublin, said: ‘We are back open on the 29th and have been pleasantly surprised by the keen interest in bookings. We are going to stick to the two metres for the moment, we assume this means we do not have to turf people out after 90 minutes, which would be completely alien to our ethos.’
Billy Whitty, of award-winning New Ross restaurant Aldridge Lodge, said he had opened bookings two days ago, and July and August were already full, with September booking up fast.
He said 90%c of these were regular customers, keen to be able to dine out again.
‘I was surprised how fast the bookings came. Once we announced on Facebook that we were reopening, the phone was literally hopping mad,’ he said.
Mr Whitty said they had planned the reopening on a two-metre social distancing basis, and were sticking to that, giving security to their diners and allowing them to stay for the whole evening.
‘We are lucky enough to have the space to do that. I understand that many places may not.
‘We are looking forward to reopening. We may be on edge for the first few nights, but hopefully we’ll get back into it quickly,’ he said.
The HSE did not explain the reasons behind the HPSC’s 90-minute recommendation. However, Professor Ronan Cahill, of the Mater Hospital and UCD, told RTÉ that the limit was designed to try to minimise the amount of viral load a person could be exposed to while in the company of someone who has Covid-19.
He said the time limit was a ‘compromise between a single issue public health focus and restarting the economy’.