After the province announced the next phase of the COVID-19 economic recovery plan last week, New Brunswick restaurants have been working hard to allow dine-in service for the first time since mid-March.
Several restaurants on the Saint John boardwalk are shooting for a coordinated June 1 re-opening, but there is lots of work to be done before service can resume.
“We’ve been working non-stop since March 17 to get a good plan in place,” said Peter Stoddart, co-owner of the Saint John Ale House. “We just don’t want to roll it out too soon, and make sure we have enough staff and everybody’s up to speed with our new processes.”
The New Era Of Restaurants
Chief among the new requirements for all New Brunswick businesses is an operational plan outlining the adherence of provincial guidelines for re-opening.
Stoddart estimates the Ale House’s plan is about 14 pages long, detailing dozens of policies and training for new staff, all while the restaurant works to drastically increase cleaning capacity to ensure sanitation standards are upheld.
He says those changes just scratch the surface when it comes to preparing for the “new era” of restaurant ownership.
“It’s a daunting task and the effort and manpower that’s gone into it before we’ve opened the doors is incredible,” he said.
The Uncertainties In Re-opening
The Ale House is still uncertain how many customers it will be able to welcome in accordance with the province’s guidelines, but in an industry with famously thin margins, it will be more important than ever to run efficiently.
“Our fear is we’ll be at 50 per cent of what we would (normally have),” Stoddart said. “Making those numbers work is going to be an incredible challenge.”
Cost control will be more important than ever for restaurants, as they navigate decreased seating capacity and the possibility of a second wave of the virus.
The Ale House is preparing a smaller menu, will house a lower level of inventory, and implement more efficient prep and portioning to help mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on the industry.
In the end, no matter how well they prepare to meet updated public health standards, Stoddart says much of their success will be out of the restaurant’s control.
Counting On Saint John
“Now it’s out of our hands, and that’s the scariest part of this industry,” he said. “It’s a whole new game of what we can and can’t do, how we restrict things, and (the possibility of) closing down because a new wave happens.”
While restaurants work toward ensuring customer safety, Stoddart says the industry will depend more than ever on the support of Saint Johners.
“We can put our restaurant back together, we can do staff training, we can put safety procedures in place. But what we need is the business to be there,” he said. “That’s what we’re working towards.”
He cites the industry’s support of community initiatives, social programs, and sporting events as examples of the way the industry has helped support the city in the past.
“Now more than ever, we need the community to look at the restaurant industry and say ‘we’re going to help you guys now,’” Stoddart said.
“In Saint John, we’re so lucky to have an incredible restaurant culture. We need to support each other and get each other through this thing. It’s been such a great run having the diversity of restaurants, it would be a real shame to lose it.”
