City restaurateurs happy about easing of curbs, unsure about time slot

On Thursday, the

West Bengal

government allowed

restaurants

to remain open between 5 and 8 in the evening provided they follow Covid-19 SOPs and all working employees are fully vaccinated. And while city restaurateurs have unequivocally welcomed the move, a few questions remain to be answered. Does this mean people are being allowed to dine out now? What about customers who are yet to get a jab, especially youngsters? But for now, we spoke to city restaurateurs about how they are preparing to reopen. Read on...



A welcome move

Stating that they are yet to get a copy of the order,

Sagar Daryani

, the head of

National Restaurant Association of India

(

NRAI

), Kolkata Chapter, wholeheartedly welcomed the move. “If possible, we’ll start from tomorrow. Traditionally, restaurants generate a lot of employment opportunities. With the pandemic and lockdown our business heads have gone down to 50-90%. Forget generating employment, many restaurants had to shut because of the ongoing mayhem. This move will give us some breather and we will see it as the first move to bounce back.”

Vaccination

a priority now

Several restaurants have started vaccination drives for their employees. Birojit Paul of Calcutta 64 said, “We have initiated the process but not all our employees are vaccinated. We’re hoping to innoculate everyone in our team in another week.”

Sagar said NRAI is also starting a drive soon on behalf of the fraternity. “We are in talks with corporates, private hospitals and municipal corporations. We’ll be able to get the fraternity vaccinated in seven to 10 days. It is important for us as well as for customer safety,” he said.

Nikhil Chawla, a partner at Marbella’s, said, “Even as we speak, I’m arranging for the vaccination of four staff members — two at Elgin Road and two at Hindusthan Park. The rest are all vaccinated. We will reopen once a date is announced. I’m glad it’s a three-hour window during the peak time. With rents going up and electricity bills shooting through the roof, even this much business will help. Besides, we did have our takeaway going though it's nothing compared to full operations,” he said.



Some will have to wait

Not all the restaurants are ‘vaccine ready’ at the moment and will have to wait. Rohit Chowdhury, a partner at Kareem's, said, “We’ve remained closed since the day the lockdown was announced and will wait till at least 50% of our employees get vaccinated. We had started the vaccination drive much ahead of the announcement because our takeaway service was operational.”

Anirban Sengupta, a partner at What's Up Café, said reopening the restaurant will take some more time. "We are yet to understand the fine print of the decision. However, we appreciate the decision and it's definitely a positive step. It speaks volumes about the government's proactive steps to help F&B businesses,” he said.



Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss yearly career horoscopes 2025 for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.