‘Orange Phase’ Could Make Challenging Winter Months Even Harder For Local Restaurants
SAINT JOHN – Being in the “orange phase” may make an already challenging winter season even harder for local restaurants in Saint John.
About two weeks ago, the city returned to the “orange phase” of Covid-19 recovery after an outbreak led to a surge in cases led to many potential exposure notices for several uptown restaurants and bars.
While some restaurants that weren’t notified by Public Health remained open, others decided to close for several days as a precaution and/or reduced their operations to takeout only.
One of those restaurants was Cask & Kettle on Prince William Street. Co-owner Shawn Verner says even though the restaurant initially was not contacted by Public Health, he decided to shut for a few days and encouraged staff to get tested.
“There was lots of talk of exposures uptown. We didn’t get notice of any exposures the whole time, but restaurant staff are pretty close. They co-mingle and customers can co-mingle too,” said Vener in an interview with Huddle on Monday. “We were a little hesitant and concerned for our staff safety. So we just decided to close.”
On Tuesday, though, Cask & Kettle was notified by public health that there was potential exposure on November 17 between 8 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., but Vener says they were told it was nothing to worry about since it was two weeks ago.
Cask and Kettle reopened last Friday for takeout-only as it did during the first-wave of Covid-19 back in March. But Verner says takeout business has been slower during this second wave.
“We were really busy the first time, but that was a little different. All of us were closed for a month or more and there weren’t that many of us doing it, but a lot of us are doing it now,” says Verner. “It’s just a numbers game. There are just not enough people to support all the restaurants that you want to for take-out. Logistically it’s not sustainable for us and a lot of places to do that.”
Cask and Kettle had to lay off about 20 staff. It’s currently been running with just a skeleton crew of about eight people, with hopes of getting more people back to work if things pick up.
On Monday the restaurant did reopen for inside dining, but restaurants operating under the orange phase are only allowed to serve people within the same household “bubble.” Because of this, Verner expects business to remain slow for local restaurants.
“It’s still going to be a big hit in sales,” he says.
Typically this is the busiest time of year for local restaurants because of bookings for work Christmas parties and holiday gatherings. This would give them the nest egg they need to get through the slow winter months.
But with the current restrictions, Verner says that may not be the case this year.
“That’s what gives you a little cash flow to get you through the really bad January, February, March,” he says. “Not having that is going to be hard enough as it is. With these restrictions, we’re not going to be able to build up the cash flow that we need to get us through that.”
Trish Hamilton of Uptown Saint John says the city’s restaurants have been resilient so far during the pandemic. But that’s because locals have been eager to support them. With the holiday season coming up, it’s important for that support to continue.
“The restaurants have a real passion for what they do. This is not easy for them. Nobody wants to see dining rooms close, nobody wants to see people losing their jobs either,” says Hamilton.
“It doesn’t have to mean eating take out every single night from all of our restaurants, though it would be lovely. I think the general point is if everybody does a little bit, this is going to mean a lot for our restaurants and bars and even for our retail sector.”
Besides dining-in or ordering takeout, Vener says another great way to support local restaurants is buying gift cards for those on your holiday shopping list. Buying the gift cards now then using them in the spring can help local restaurants get through an especially tough winter season.
“Get them now, but save them for when things get better,” says Verner. “If you’re buying them then using them the next day, that doesn’t help as much as buying them now and using them in the spring when things are back to somewhat normal.”
Though local support is critical for restaurants to survive the winter, Verner says he’d like to see additional help from the federal or provincial government too.
“Putting us in orange phase with all of these restrictions was hard, I would say just as hard as being in red for us. It was disappointing to be put in that position and have all these restrictions put on that we have to enforce,” he says.
“Allowing us to be open, but telling people not to come out was quite hard, and to have nothing in place federally or provincially to try to offset some of that was quite disappointing.”