NO! A RESTAURANT CAN NOT OPEN WITH 25% CAPACITY. IT'S BETTER TO STAY CLOSED
Some jurisdictions in their wisdom are defining the criteria for re-opening to protect social distancing and it cannot work. There must be another way........and there are many.
As a former busboy, waiter, cook and manager, I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of my hospitality colleagues.
All restaurants are seasonal even on a daily basis. No restaurant can operate on a low season seven days a week. It will go out of business in one week. To function during normal times, a stand-alone restaurant has some flexibility that a hotel restaurant does not. Examples include,
- A typical hotel restaurant must open for breakfast and fit in all guests who are limited in time available.
- 25% capacity will be insufficient to service travelling clientele on a schedule.
- Breakfast service necessitates staffing one half a shift more than a stand alone restaurant.
- Stand-alone restaurants are not typically geared toward breakfast business.
- A typical hotel restaurant must open seven days a week.
- 5 shifts a week splits the teams and necessitates extra employees
- Some days are lost losers when stand-alone restaurants can close
- Stand-alone restaurants cannot be lumped together. They range from coffee shops, cafeterias and bistros to pubs, white tablecloth destination dining to corner diners, ethnic specialty shops and banquet and convention centres. They can not be lumped together nor can any of them function or survive a week with 75% of their revenue forbidden.
- It has little to do with capacity, it has everything to do with social distancing or facial protection.
- A table for two is different from a table for 4, or is it?
- A round table for 8 spaces differently than a round for 4. If 4 people can meet at home, why not at a restaurant?
- High seasons can be Summer, weekends, Holidays or convention days.
- Operating at 25% would not suffice for the customer, for the owner or the employees
- Low seasons can be Mondays, February, Labour Day in the city, 2.00PM, 9.00PM and Sunday nights
- 25% is less than the capacity needed for Low seasons.
Taking a restaurant of 120 seats as an example and inflicting a 25% maximum seat count provides 30 seats and depending on the style of restaurant, that could mean anywhere between 8 and 12 tables. Remember that buffet service is not permitted.
- With 120 seats it is reasonable to anticipate +/-8/10 service staff, 1 manager, 1 Chef, 3 cooks, 2 stewards and 2-3 'back of house' support staff (purchasing, storekeepers, cleaners, receivers, accounting, managers) for a total of about 18 employees, depending on hotel or standalone restaurant.
- With 30 seats, 5 employees are potentially cut (although in many jurisdictions they are still paid but still without tips) and 75% of the revenue is eliminated because of the seating reduction.
- Rent & Overhead. No change.
- Utilities. No change.
- Management Costs. No change
Meanwhile employees who have endured 10 weeks of 'self isolation' are now further laid off because of a government inflicted limit on restaurant size that could be rectified by some form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the employees as front-line workers. NB. Customer face masks not practical for eating/drinking.
The ebb and flow of customers in a typical restaurant balances low and high, day/week/month season, and low and high time period vs turnover without considering the critical factor of 'average spend' that ends up with margins that are very low under any circumstance and in most hotel situations, food and beverage margins that are in fact negative.
Government officials must consult the industry for workable solutions and they do not include the reduction of seating capacity but the protection of the public, valuable hospitality employees and the business owners, many of whom are spinning their wheels or treading water even in the best of times.
For further information contact,
David McMillan ([email protected])
Former CEO of the International Hotel & Restaurant Association
.............or your local hotel or restaurant association,
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