Curfew makes Gujarat restaurants reluctant to offer dining in

AHMEDABAD: Even though the state government has given permission to restaurants to resume operations from Monday, most restaurateurs are reluctant to resume dine-in services at their outlets. Since shops and establishments are supposed to shut business by 7pm itself, as part of the state guidelines for Unlock 1.0, restaurants are unsure of customer footfall, as 80% of their dine-in business takes place during the evening.
“With dine-in operations mostly taking place during the evening, not all restaurateurs are keen on resuming business because of the timing restrictions to wrap up by 7pm. Owners of restaurants and eateries are therefore in wait and watch mode and most may not restart dine-in services and continue with takeaways for June,” said Narendra Somani, president, Hotels and Restaurants’ Association (HRA) – Gujarat.
Hoteliers say footfalls will take a hit and it doesn’t make economic sense to add to overheads by starting dine-in services. “We will only be operating two outlets and that too for takeaways alone. Delivery orders are very limited at this point and it is an indicator of how sceptical people are when it comes to eating out. This may affect footfalls to a great extent. Keeping restaurants open will only mean adding to overheads which is not palatable for the business,” said Rushad Jinwala, a city-based restaurateur.
Some of the eateries are also not keen on resuming, as their staff, mainly comprising migrant workers, have left the state.
Some restaurants are thinking of resuming business with limited seating capacity and contactless menus. “We will be reducing the seating capacity to 50% to ensure social distancing is maintained. Digital menus using apps will be used to place orders and customers will also be given an alternative of being served food in disposable crockery. Even though the crockery is cleaned according to specified standards,” said Jasvir Singh, founder of a chain of restaurants.