Sudbury restaurants adjust to new restrictions under red zone rules

Marc Grottoli just reopened the doors to the dining room at Ripe Restaurant less than three weeks ago, but already, he's shifting his Sudbury restaurant back to a takeout only operation, for the time being.

Sudbury entered the red zone in the province's COVID-19 framework on Monday, and while restaurants are permitted to continue with indoor dining, the increased restrictions have some restaurant owners contemplating whether it's worth continuing with dine-in. 

"There were a lot of factors that came into the decision," Grottoli said, including staff safety amid rising COVID-19 case numbers, and logistics. 

The red zone restrictions mean restaurants must limit their dining rooms to a total of 10 guests at a time, with a maximum of four per table. Those four must be from the same household.

Since reopening last month, he said Ripe has had 30 to 40 people in the restaurant most nights. He said he worried about the logistics of managing a capacity limit of 10 people. 

"You could have massive pileups at the door. And then like I said if you did it by reservation only, I think you're just constantly going to be on the phone turning people down and disappointing people. So I think if you just take the approach of going with takeout only, you eliminate all that disappointment." 

Health unit adds extra requirements 

At Gus' Restaurant downtown, owner Spyros Koutroumanos said he knows he won't be turning a profit with just 10 customers at a time, but he hopes to earn enough to cover his basic bills.

"I mean we work for nothing, we know that."

A big concern for him, however, is how many customers he'll see coming in once additional rules set out by the health unit come into effect on Wednesday.

Public Health Sudbury and Districts announced new requirements, in addition to those set out by the province, in response to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. Starting Wednesday, restaurants will be required to ask customers at each table to confirm that they live in the same household. There are some exceptions for people who live alone or are caregivers.

While he has families who come in together for dinner, Koutroumanos knows that for his breakfast and lunch regulars, that's usually not the case. 

"They're colleagues from work, they're friends. Or they meet each other here after, during their lunch break. So I know that they're not family, however they're still coming. Now if I have to ask them to sit in separate tables, I don't think they will come back again," Koutroumanos said. 

In all levels of the province's COVID-19 framework, people are asked not to have close contact with people they don't live with. 

While he's open for now, Koutroumanos said he'll reassess later this week, once he sees how sales are going.

'Play it by ear' 

Toula Sakellaris at Apollo restaurant similarly plans to "play it by ear." She said she's ready to ask people if they live together, and isn't too worried.

"If it's only 10 people, that's easy to manage," Sakellaris said. 

She said she's already had instances where a group of six people has come in, and she's had to divide them up to abide by the four person per table limit. 

"And what I did, I sat 3 one one table, 3 on the other. 6 feet apart," Sakellaris said. 

Sakellaris said she hopes she'll still have people coming in for a meal, but if not, she feels lucky that takeout from Apollo has been taking off.