City restaurants embrace face shields & gloves, diners make a beeline for their favourites

On Monday, the first day of Unlock 1.0, Bengaluru was finally bustling with activity. After months of inoperation, malls opened their gates to customers and restaurants across the city — most of which were restricted to offering only take away during the lockdown — now welcomed diners. Needless to say, safety measures including face shields, sanitizers, thermal scanners and masks were a common sight.
Darshinis and eateries saw customers queuing up to get a taste of their favourite food. Sneha Gowda, a student who was meeting her friends for the first time since the lockdown, said, “I didn’t meet my friends for two months. This is the first time I’m meeting them in public since the lockdown. We meet up at Airlines Hotel regularly and wanted to grab a cup of filter coffee that we have been missing.”
Talking about the safety measures in place, another customer at a hotel said, “The restaurants are taking adequate measures. We are stepping out with masks and are sanitizing our hands regularly. In fact, when I met my friends, we didn’t hug or even shake hands. It felt strange, but we were maintaining social distance.”
Despite the low footfalls at the malls on day one of Unlock 1.0, restaurant owners are confident that things will pick up in a month or two. “We have implemented all the safety measures, including limiting the number of tables at our restaurant. Our staff are wearing face shields, gloves and masks,” said Diwakar Rao, the proprietor of Airlines Hotel, adding that though they saw a rather dull morning, the number of diners started increasing towards the evening.
Another popular city eatery, Koshy’s, was operating at less than its usual crowd. Spotted enjoying a meal there, were director SD Aravinda and his actor-art director brother Avinash S Divakar. “Koshy’s is not allowing more than two people to dine at one table. Our temperatures were checked and we had to sanitize our hands. The servers too are wearing masks and gloves. This is what things are going to be like,” said Aravinda.