Nelson hospitality businesses brace

The true impact of coronavirus is yet to be fully felt by Nelson’s hospitality businesses, as a plea goes out to punters not to drain their glasses just yet.

Burger Culture manager Phil Williams said while it was business as usual for the time being, he was aware of many local establishments starting to brace for dip in trade if it does come to that. ‘‘For us it’s still too early to really make a call on that – it will be this weekend that will tell us a lot more about the state of things.’’

Williams said the supply chain for bar and restaurant goods were not causing issues. He said there had been no changes to staff numbers or rostered hours.

Extra effort was being put into keeping surfaces clean, while the practice of putting cutlery tins and sauces out on tables had been stopped and recyclable single-use paper menus have been put in place.

With the added attention to cleaning implemented, he asked customers to bear with the business as staff doubled down on its cleanliness.

Burger Culture’s head chef/ owner Chris Williams was gathering support from local hospitality operators to produce an open letter next week, encouraging the people of Nelson to continue frequenting bars and restaurants, to keep business and community morale alive through uncertain times. ‘‘It’s basically saying, ‘don’t forget us’.’’

Around the corner on Bridge St, cocktail lounge Bamboo Tiger had made some necessary adjustments to its layout due to the 100-person gathering limit imposed by the Government.

Manager Sameer Galav said as well as extra cleaning measures, the establishment was operating under a 90-person maximum capacity, managed by a ‘‘one in, one out’’ policy at the door.

Most bar stools had been removed and tables spaced out to enable better social distancing for patrons. The use of Paywave was preferred when making purchases.

On Saturday, despite the announcement of further restrictions due to more than a dozen new cases of coronavirus around the country, business was still booming at a Trafalgar St restaurant.

Cod and Lobster Brasserie owner Nick Widley said business was ‘‘absolutely awesome’’ over the weekend. Despite a drop in tourist numbers, there were plenty of locals out supporting the restaurant and bar’’.

‘‘The general demeanour of people was chipper, but there was an underlying sense of ‘when’s the next time we’re going to able to come out and socialise like this?’.’’

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The general demeanour of people was chipper.’’ Nick Widley