Northeast restaurants excited but concerned over ‘unclear’ Phase Three protocols

Karinne Seiferling from The Spot owns the Nipawin location and co-owns the Tisdale location. She’s glad to have a set date on when The Spot can re-open, although few details from Thursday’s announcement has left her confused as to how operations should go.

“There are so many obstacles… I’m not trying to sound negative, but I think there’s a reality to it as well,” Seiferling told northeastNOW. “I think about every step a customer will make from the time they walk in the doors and sit down. There are so many different areas in the restaurant that people can pass or contaminate one another. We’re going to have to be so cautious with how we’re going to re-open and the procedures that we’re going to follow.”

Potential scenarios Seiferling ponders include having customers enter through the front and exiting through the back and servers taking one plate back at a time and sanitizing before coming back for the remaining customers’ dishes. She worries about how much and how often areas throughout each restaurant should be sanitized, how a server can safely serve a table of customers, and what restrictions should be put in place for washroom use.

“I would hope the government would provide the policies we have to follow,” she said. “There’s too much of a grey area for owners to be putting that on themselves to follow those procedures; it’s too risky for individuals to make those calls. How confusing would it be if you go to one restaurant and they’re doing one thing and another is doing something completely different? If that responsibility were left to owners, I think some people would go about their regular ways.”

Buh-bye buffet

Shaun Teo co-owns Go For Wok, a Chinese restaurant in Melfort. He echoed the same desire for clear sanitization guidelines from the province.

However, he does have a unique concern: the buffet in Go For Wok and if it will be allowed in some capacity or not.

“If there is some kind of a vaccine or preventive medication and numbers are low… if it comes to that point it’d be okay,” Teo said. “Until then, I think it’d be better to make up for not having a buffet and offer something different. We have Chinese food, but maybe some Vietnamese food or sushi. People might weight the variety of what they can offer instead of having the buffet. The buffet might be off the table for a while.”

Bringing staff back: how many at once?

Both Seiferling and Teo imagine they’ll bring back as much staff as possible prior to their re-opening dates.

“I’d rather overprepare than underprepare,” Seiferling said. “We’ll have a meeting with staff and make sure everyone understands this is a gamble and we’re not sure how it’s going to work. Even at 50 per cent capacity, because of the extra procedures that may be in place because of sanitizing, we may need more staff than we think. There are so many things you haven’t thought about: cleaning schedule, people coming in and out. We start with as much staff as we can and then we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

Seiferling said relying on take out and delivery for two months has been enough for The Spot to cover energy, food, and power bills. She said costs will rise once employees are back on the payroll and when they use more resources, but she imagines having the dining room open at 50 per cent will make the restaurant profitable again.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow

by Aaron Schulze

Northeast restaurants excited but concerned over ‘unclear’ Phase Three protocols

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