Reopening moves to second stage
Restaurants, bars in Waterloo Region allowed to serve outdoors as of Friday
WATERLOO REGION — Restaurants and bars in Waterloo Region can reopen patios as of Friday as pandemic restrictions ease.
The new rules were announced Monday by the province, part of a second stage of reopening protocols that will allow people in certain regions to get haircuts and tattoos, visit shopping malls, swim in a public pool or visit a museum.
But the most populous parts of the province, including Toronto and neighbouring regions of York, Durham and
Peel, will have to wait a while longer before those businesses and facilities get the green light. Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Windsor-Essex and Lambton will also remain in a Stage 1 reopening stance for the time being.
In the rest of the province, restaurants, bars, food trucks and other food and drink establishments, including wineries, breweries and distilleries, can offer dining in outdoor areas such as patios and parking lots.
“I think it’s a good step,” said Mel’s Diner owner Angela Smith. “I think people really want to get out. We should be busy, fingers crossed.”
Smith will be creating patio space in the parking lots at both the Westmount Road and University Avenue locations;
there’s already an existing patio at Westmount as well.
“This really allows us to bring (employees) back,” she said. Roughly 30 per cent of her staff are working now, handling takeout and delivery orders. The patios will increase that to about 60 per cent. “There are still employees who are still not comfortable coming back.”
There are specific regulations — patrons from different households must have at least two metres of space between them, and reservations will be required. Limits will be placed on the number of people allowed at one time.
The only indoor access permitted will be for washroom use, picking up takeout orders, paying the bill or to get to an outdoor space. Expanded patios (into a parking lot, for example) will be licensed for liquor sales as long as certain conditions are met, such as the municipality not objecting to the extension.
While the patios at Bobby O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Kitchener and McCabe’s Irish Pub & Grill in Waterloo will be opening Friday, the McCabe’s location in Kitchener will remain closed for now. Curbside and delivery service is launching at the Waterloo McCabe’s location.
“We’re going to go slow about it, and take our time,” said Darryl Moore, vice-president, operations, for the three establishments. A lot of their Kitchener clientele — downtown office workers — are still working remotely and aren’t in the core.
The large patio at Bobby O’Brien’s means they can still accommodate a lot of customers even with physical distancing taken into consideration.
“Some places with a smaller patio, it might not be worth their while,” Moore said. “You’re not going to generate the revenue.”
Moore is anticipating a mixed response; while he expects there will be a certain demographic who aren’t quite prepared to venture out to eat, there are others looking forward to wings and beer after w
Jody Palubiski, chief executive officer of the Charcoal Group, said he was a bit surprised by the announcement, as he hadn’t seen a similar approach in some of the other parts of Canada he’s been watching.
That said, “overall, we are emphatically happy that we have some semblance of a go.” Charcoal Group operates more than 15 restaurants in Waterloo Region and several other Ontario ties.
“There’s at least five or six patios we’d like to look at expanding,” he said. Unfortunately, two of the locations with the most potential — Oakville and Burlington — are in Halton Region, and can’t reopen on Friday.
Patio service works better for some styles of restaurants than others, Palubiski said. A pub can have some fun with it. A steak house? “A dressed-up parking lot is going to be difficult,” he said.
“All of this is so new, and uncharted territory,” noted food writer Andrew Coppolino. “It’s sort of an experiment, isn’t it, to see how it can work.”
There are day-to-day stresses — a rainy day effectively shuts down all but the most well-covered patios. And there are broader concerns. “I worry if it’s not done properly, will we pay for it with a spike in new cases?” Coppolino asked. But if it’s done carefully, it’s an important step in getting more businesses open, and more people back to work.
Customers need to be patient as they adapt to a new system, Coppolino said. “It’s going to require some getting used to.”