Londoners are allowed to wine and dine on outdoor patios again, now that the Province of Ontario has entered Stage 2 of Phase 2 of its coronavirus pandemic reopening plan.
Starting Friday, restaurants with outdoor spaces are allowed to serve customers, and Barney’s, a local restaurant known for its patio, says they’re already fully booked-up for Day 1 of reopening.
Among the diners was Montana Gemmell, who says she’s feeling happy to be out again.
“It’s nice to be with my friends, and be able to order food again finally. I’m actually a server too, so I’m excited to go back to work.”
“We’ve also moved all of our tables two metres apart, and reduced our capacity to 50 per cent.”
In addition, Marcus says an 18 per cent gratuity has been introduced after new positions were created, and the money will be split among all staff.
Diners are also asked to follow new guidelines, such as using hand sanitizer when entering, and only leaving their table to use the washroom.
Another restaurant in downtown London is also working towards reopening, despite not having a patio yet.
Angela Murphy with Grace Restaurant spoke with Devon Peacock on 980 CFPL’s Morning Show Friday, and said they’re hoping to reopen in a week or two.
“I spent the weekend buying patio furniture and my dad is hard at work in his woodshop building our patio fencing,” said Murphy.
The restaurant has never had a patio before, and Murphy says another issue is finding enough staff to operate the outdoor dining space.
Once the newly-built patio is installed and ready for business, Murphy says the restaurant will only seat 20 people at a time and take reservations to enforce physical distancing.
Despite the beginning of Stage 2 of Phase 2, not all restaurants with a patio are ready to reopen just yet.
Vanessa Willis with London’s Church Key Bistro-Pub told Devon Peacock on 980 CFPL’s Morning Show Friday that Ford’s announcement on Monday did not give them enough preparation time to reopen by the end of the week.
Nevertheless, Willis says she felt “sheer joy” when she heard the announcement.
Stage 2 of Phase 2 also allows the reopening of beauty salons, barbershops and places of worship, and people can gather in groups of 10 rather than five.