India News | Despite Govt Permission, Restaurants Ditch Dine-in Services
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Despite the Delhi government allowing restaurants here to restart their dine-in services from Monday, many eateries have decide to stick only to the take-away and home delivery options for the time being due to restrictions on timings of operations as well as shortage of staff.
New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Despite the Delhi government allowing restaurants here to restart their dine-in services from Monday, many eateries have decide to stick only to the take-away and home delivery options for the time being due to restrictions on timings of operations as well as shortage of staff.
Those running resto-bars have also sought more clarity from the government on whether they will be allowed to open anytime soon.
Vinod Gulati, who runs the ‘Gulati' restaurant at Pandara Road, said most of his staff members have moved back to their home states during the lockdown.
“We have not decided on the date to start our dine-in operations till we have our staff back,” he said, adding that the restaurant is currently accepting take-away orders.
Joy Singh, co-partner at Raasta and Yeti, also expressed concern over shortage of staff as many have moved to their native places.
"The workforce remains a cause of concern as people have relocated and the arduous task is to call them back. With brand Yeti, we have decided to continue with delivery-only service and will resume dine-in only after June 30, once the government allows operations with lesser restrictions," Singh said.
Jatin Mallick, chef and co-owner of Tres in Lodhi Colony, said given the restrictions on restaurants' operations, the management has decided not to open its dine-in facility at the moment.
“Currently, we are focusing on home deliveries, carrying forward the same ethos of local, fresh and seasonal produce,” Mallick said.
Girish Oberoi, the past president of the Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Association of India, said the timings of operations allowed by the government are also an issue as all establishments have to shut by 9 p.m.
“This means, we have to take our last order by 7.30-8 p.m. This is not dinner time for many,” he said.
Payal Verma, director, Blue Door Café in Khan Market, said her staff will be able to commute when metro operations start. She said once operational, the cafe will also have ‘quarantine rooms' where a group of four to six people can dine by booking in advance.
Addressing an online briefing, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said following the orders of the Central government, the Delhi government has decided to open restaurants, shopping mall, and places of worship from Monday.
“The Central government has issued specific guidelines regarding the opening of these places which include maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, and others. All these guidelines prepared by the experts of the Central government would be followed in Delhi," he said.
The chief minister added that however, the government will take a call on opening banquet halls later as the number of cases of COVID-19 is rising and there might be a need to take over the hotels and banquets to transform them into COVID care facilities.
According to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the Health Ministry, restaurants have been asked to encourage takeaways instead of dine-in.
"Food delivery personnel should leave the packet at the customer's door. Do not handover the food packet directly to the customer," it said.
The ministry also said the staff for home deliveries shall be screened thermally by the restaurant authorities prior to allowing home deliveries.
"Entrance to have mandatory hand hygiene (sanitizer dispenser) and thermal screening provisions and only asymptomatic staff and patrons shall be allowed," it said.
The Delhi government issued an order allowing opening of malls and restaurants, except in containment zones.
Priyank Sukhija, the owner of restaurant chains such as Plum By Bent Chair, Lord of the Drinks and Tamasha in Delhi and Mumbai said there was no clarity on whether resto-bars will be permitted to reopen or not.
"There is no clarity on whether restro-bars will be allowed to open. All my outlets are restro-bars. Most of my employees have gone back home and after they return they will have to stay in 14-day quarantine. Ours is a service industry and not a shop that we can open in a day. We will wait for clarity from the government.".
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)