Restaurants can now open June 8 at half capacity, but are still waiting for guidelines for safe practices. (File photo/battlefordsNOW)

By Josh Ryan

Dinner's Waiting

Restaurants waiting for guidelines ahead of Phase 3

May 22, 2020 | 9:06 AM

This week’s buzz around Phase 2 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan has carried through residents in the Battlefords getting to many long-overdue appointments. However, sectors like the food hospitality industry are still in limbo of how quickly to prepare for their own reopening on June 8.

Before restaurant owners can begin hiring back workers and opening their doors for sit down customers, they’ll need provincial guidance. Blend Restaurant & Bar’s Robin Petersen said he expects they will be told to use every second table, but there are several other procedures they’re looking for clarification on.

“What they might have are new guidelines on how to serve and how to clear tables and that’s pretty unclear so far,” Petersen said. “Nothing’s really been given for that.”

All restaurants, cafés and food serving establishments that have remained open have done so through focusing on takeout/delivery using minimal staff. Because of hesitancy from many customers to go inside facilities, some are trying makeshift drive-thru.

“We’re only allowed to have one person come in, but we’re finding that a lot of people don’t even want to come in,” Rachel Buennell, owner of the Cup Café & Bakery. “We’re just trying to make the adjustment from only doing deliveries [during the pandemic].”

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“I just have to follow whatever the government [tells] us to do,” The Beaver Grill Exprezz owner Rachel Lee said. “We just have to follow the rules.”

So far, that has meant maintain cleaning standards for Lee and her staff.

“I’m just trying to spread it out according to the measurements,” she said. “And doing more sanitizing.”

Several restaurants have expanded their orders. Petersen and his staff have started to sell wholesale meats to customers.

“If a person likes, say, Prairie Meats products [in Saskatoon], we can simply order it in for them at the same price and they can pick it up here,” he said.

Now that there’s a date in place, reopening can begin. But hiring back staff and adding supply will depend on the province’s direction.

“Once we have an actual date and [know] what the guidelines will be, then we’d be able to operate,” Buennell said. “Different than we did in the past, but more like a normal bakery.”

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports