#Unlock1.0: Restaurants in the city unsure about reopening

Even as the district administration allowed malls and restaurants to reopen earlier this week, dining at your favourite restaurant might take a while. The DM announced on Sunday that restaurants and malls in Kanpur will open as per the Centre’s guidelines, but a few restaurants in the city are still unsure about resuming operations. Restaurateurs say reopening restaurants with the 9pm deadline isn’t viable.
Not feasible to open now: Restaurateurs
Amarjeet Singh, owner of a chain of restaurant is in no hurry to open his restaurant now. He says, “Opening the restaurant is not so feasible. I did open my restaurant on Monday but I had only one customer in the entire day. So I closed it down. Ab ek customer ke liye poora restaurant kaise khola jaa sakta hai? It would only add to my expenses.After the observations of the first day I have decided to wait and watch. Now, I will only re-open the restaurant when things will turn better and people will start dining out in the restaurants.”
‘Reopening only for deliveries and take aways’
While others are going out of the way to innovate to ensure business. Piyush Srivastava, manager operations of a hotel, informs, “We have not opened our restaurants and are still observing the response of the customers at other restaurants. However, we plan to open up in days to come but initially our focus will be more on take away orders. Restaurant kholna koi aasan baat nahi hai…there are so many kitchen preparations that are required to be done before functioning. We also have to get the paper menus and kits for our staff before we open.”
‘Shortage of staff’
Lack of staff is also restricting the restaurant owners from opening their joints.Ankit Pandey, owner of a restaurant says, “We have five restaurants in Kanpur and only one restaurant of ours is functional because I don’t have enough staff. During the lockdown most of the workers returned to their native places. Now many of them are in no mood of returning. Ab jab staff hoga, tab restaurant kholenge.”
Why will people come in the evening in this heat?, ask restaurateurs
Piyush Srivastava, goes on to says, “Kanpur is a business town and most of our customers start coming to the restaurant by 10pm. With the 9pm closure deadline, opening a restaurant makes no sense. People will not come in so early to eat food during summers. And why should we make so much food and then let it go waste? So we will wait for the administration to extend the deadline and then open the restaurant.”