CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — It didn't take long for bars and restaurants to start seeing customers come back after the province announced on Thursday it was allowing dining rooms to reopen with revised restrictions.
Jeff Sinnott, co-owner of Hunter's Ale House in Charlottetown, started taking reservations shortly after the announcement for lunch on Friday. By 1 p.m. on Friday, the pub was full of customers.
"They're waiting for us to open, so that's a good sign," said Sinnott.
He and Chad MacDonald co-own the Red Island Hospitality Group Inc., which operates Hunter's Ale House as well as the Charlottetown Beer Garden and Seafood Patio, the Factory Downtown, John Brown Richmond Street Grille and Hunter's at the Fox (at Fox Meadow Golf Course in Stratford).
The province announced on Dec. 6 it was temporarily shutting down dining rooms on P.E.I. until Dec. 21 due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the Charlottetown area. After thousands of Islanders got tested for COVID-19 with favourable results, the province decided to allow dining rooms to reopen early, but with revised restrictions. The restrictions include a 10-person per table maximum limit, required closing at 11 p.m., the continuation of a 50-person indoor capacity, and only one (second) group (or cohort) of 50 people with an operational plan. These measures are scheduled to be in place until Jan. 11.
Sinnott said takeout and curbside pick-up service can only go so far, so it's good news that dining rooms are open again.
But the 11 p.m. closing time is having an impact on business, especially since many of his establishments are also geared toward a late-night crowd and normally would close at 2 a.m.
Most of the late-night specials, such as wing night, and trivia in the pub, only start at 9 p.m. He said it's going to be hard to jam everything into that two-hour window when customers have to leave by 11 p.m. The kitchen will still be open late, but not until 1:30 a.m. as before.
Hunter's at the Fox was already closed for the season when the Dec. 6 restrictions were put in place. Sinnott's other dining rooms are re-opening, except the Beer Garden, which is going to remain closed since it normally only opens at 10 p.m.
Kevin Murphy, president and CEO of the Murphy Hospitality Group, which owns the Gahan House, P.E.I. Brewing Company, Brickhouse Kitchen and Bar, The Merchantman, Bar1911 and other establishments, said the P.E.I. dining room reopenings were good news since "you can't win this battle by staying closed in business."
The 11 p.m. closing time doesn't really impact his restaurants too much since he's been noticing business dropping off at 10 or 10:30 p.m. anyway.
Murphy also owns restaurants in Halifax and New Brunswick, so he has to keep track of regulations in three provinces. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have social distancing requirements, similar to P.E.I., but rather than 50-person capacity limits, those provinces have a 50 per cent capacity requirement. Also, dining rooms in the New Brunswick and P.E.I. are open whereas dining rooms at Murphy's Halifax restaurants will remain closed until Jan. 11. Murphy said he's frustrated with the Nova Scotia government's decision to keep dining rooms closed.
"Why stretch it out three weeks if you're doing good contact tracing and you get control of it and the cases are down, then why wouldn't you start to reopen your economy?" he said.
During both P.E.I. dining room shutdowns this year, restaurants relied on takeout orders and curbside pick-up or delivery services as a revenue option. But takeout service only accounts for a small portion of overall revenues, Murphy said.
"It really keeps the place open, keeps your staff engaged a bit, keeps the brand alive. But from a strictly business perspective, there's not much there."
For Murphy and Sinnott, Thursday's announcement also made for a long day of recalling staff to come back to work. Murphy said this second shutdown seemed harder on staff since it was so close to Christmas. But everyone is excited to be back at work.
Sinnott agreed and said there were a lot of "hugs and high-fives" on Friday when staff came back.
"These people are like family, so it's good to have them back," he said.
Terrence McEachern is The Guardian's business reporter. He can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @terry_mcn .
