KOLKATA: Two premier city clubs, one heritage and the other a new-age establishment, opened their
bars
for members on Tuesday — the first day of resumption of bars after over five months. The two
clubs
— Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) and Princeton Club — opened their
liquor
counters in the afternoon.
Most of the other clubs are likely to follow suit in a few days. Tolly Club may resume liquor service on Wednesday while Eastern Metropolitan Club has planned to restart the same next week.
Calcutta Club
will fix a date for resuming liquor and dining in the next few days while it may take a fortnight for Calcutta Rowing Club (CRC) and Lake Club. DI and International Club are yet to take a call on resuming bar operation.
G S Baweja, who oversees the F & B section at RCGC, told TOI that the club started the bars in open areas after taking all the necessary permissions. “The lounge bar and third shaamiyana bars were open on Tuesday. Our bowling club bar will open on Wednesday. We are getting a good response,” he said. Sushil Mohta, chairman of Merlin Group that owns Princeton Club, too, was upbeat about the response. “It (permission to open bars) was a welcome move and we are getting a good response,” he said.
CEO of Tolly Club Anil Mukherjee said, “Some of the prices have to be revised, following the hike in April. Besides, some approvals have to be taken and most of the government offices were closed on Tuesday,” he added. CRC secretary Chandan Roy Chowdhury said they will start liquor service in 9-10 days after sanitization and cleaning of premises. Lake Club secretary
Subrata Guha
said they were planning to restart the operation after Vishwakarma Puja. “Many of our staffers are from Odisha and most of them went back home as the club had been closed,” he added.
Sanjib Ghosh of Eastern Metropolitan Club said they would start both bar and dining next Tuesday. Calcutta Club is yet to fix a date said committee member Pramit Ray. Jayajeet Biswas, president of DI, felt that reopening of clubs at this juncture could be profitable for new-age commercial clubs, but heritage clubs, like DI, needed to assess the situation.
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