Bars, restaurants ‘off and running’
Establishments take precautions to protect and separate patrons
It didn’t take long for the first pour at Rose and Crown pub Monday after doors opened at 11 a.m.
For the first time in two months, customers sat leisurely with beers on the table at the 15th Avenue and 4th Street S.W. establishment’s patio, as calls for reservations in the days ahead arrived.
Monday marked the end of a long wait for Calgary restaurants, bars, pubs and cafes looking to reopen for dine-in service after being forced to close in March due to the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic.
Eateries could open at 50 per cent capacity, with special protocols in place to ensure sanitation is upheld and physical distancing is maintained.
“We’re off and running. Patrons are almost running in and going, ‘Please can I have a Guinness,’ ” said Rose and Crown general manager Dennis Madden.
“They haven’t had one for months, so I think a bit of relief on their part. For us, it’s sort of back to business as usual with some precautions. We’re happy to be back at it, although it is a little bit foreign.”
In dining areas, restaurants and bars are instructed to arrange tables so that there are two metres between each party, according to the province.
Aisles should be wide enough for people to maintain physical distancing, while physical barriers should be installed where tables cannot be adequately separated, such as through use of dividers between booths.
No more than six patrons should sit together at larger tables.
“Whereas before you would just do ‘this,’ now you’re like, ‘Hang on a second, I have to do this, this and this,’ rather than just one step,” said Madden.
“We dusted everything off and we’ve got our masks on, our hand sanitizer and table sanitizers ready to go.”
Calgary lagged behind most Alberta cities and towns, where bars and restaurants, as well as hair salons, were allowed to reopen May 14.
Along with Brooks, Calgary’s higher volume of active COVID -19 cases meant the city needed more time to prepare for relaunch, according to the province.
As of Monday, there were 594 active coronavirus cases in Alberta Health Services’ Calgary zone. That included 36 people in hospital, of which four were being treated in intensive care.
The province reported three more deaths on Monday, all in the Calgary zone, bringing Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll to 138. More than 760 active cases remain across the province, with 19 new cases reported Monday.
It will take some time before customers adjust to new realities when dining in, said Gerard Curran, proprietor of James Joyce Irish Pub and Restaurant on Stephen Avenue.
Curran said there were three customers at the pub by noon, but he was already fielding questions on what’s not yet allowed, such as bar service.
“People still don’t understand … ‘You mean I can’t sit at the bar?’ It’s the whole re-educating of people,” he said.
“I’m still worried about, ‘Are we doing everything?’ We’ve got tons of staff on, to monitor everything and answer as many questions as you can. It’s very, very difficult.”
Some businesses have chosen to keep waiting despite the province’s go-ahead.
“We’re just going to let it play out a little bit,” said Angel Black, a server at Galaxie Diner, on 11th Street S.W.
“We don’t really want to be the first kids in the pool, so we’re just going to play it by ear and continue on with our delivery and takeout for now.”
Black said it didn’t make practical sense to reopen for seating quite yet due to the restaurant’s setup.
She said it’s unlikely they’ll make a decision before mid-june.
“Being a tiny place, if we removed the tables necessary, that would probably leave us with five customers maximum,” Black said.
“It may not be practical for us, until they loosen up social-distancing guidelines a little bit, to reopen.”
Adam Gill, operations manager at Una Pizza + Wine on 17th Avenue S.W., said he also decided to hold off until the restaurant could reopen “the right way.”
He said they’re monitoring to “see how everything else unrolls.”
“I think there’s a lot of unknown going on at this time,” Gill said.
“I just want to make sure that … the customers feel safe in our building and our staff feel safe.”
Curran said he anticipates “a very slow rebuild” as operations resume.
“You’ve just got to follow all the rules as best you can,” he said.
“I think it’ll be different a couple of weeks from now, but we just want to stay on the right side of the law.”