Last week Premier Doug Ford announced that restaurant patios will remain closed until Stage 1 of the province’s reopening roadmap, which goes into effect once 60 per cent of adults are vaccinated with at least one dose. The estimated timeline for Stage 1 to go into effect is currently June 14.
The City of Orillia’s Economic Recovery Task Force met yesterday to discuss how the See You on the Patio program could be enhanced to further support restaurants during this difficult time.
“We are working with restaurants throughout the city as we prepare to host outdoor dining as soon as it’s permitted by the province,” said Laura Thompson, senior manager of business development.
Thompson says the city has made it easier for restaurants to expand their businesses into outdoor patios this summer.
“We’ve developed a communications plan to promote local restaurants, we’re showcasing local takeout options through the Orillia & Lake Country Tourism webpage, and we’re busy accepting applications for the new city-wide animation program which will allow restaurants to host city-funded entertainers on their patios,” she said.
The city has also developed an online webpage for restaurants which includes information on the patio approval process, a 'How to Build a Great Patio' video featuring local restaurateurs, as well as other helpful resources.
“Orillia is lucky to have so many great restaurants to choose from, but many of these rely on the busy summer season to help sustain their operations through the winter,” Thompson explained.
“We encourage everyone to support local restaurants so that we can continue to enjoy gathering over food and celebrating with friends and family at restaurants once it’s safe to do so again.”
Rustica Pizza Vino owner Jenna Clarke says the See You on the Patio program gave her restaurant a big boost last year, even though her Mississaga Street location did not expand its patio onto the street.
“It was awesome. I love how the downtown was just buzzing. It was refreshing after such an isolating year for everyone,” Clarke said.
“I’m happy for the other businesses and restaurants, especially if they don’t have a patio. Dine-in eating is going to be delayed until potentially August, and I can’t imagine how difficult that would be for some of these businesses with no patio," she said.
Clarke is currently looking for other innovative ways to help give her business a boost while being restricted to serving only take-out for the time being.
“It’s not an ideal situation for us, but we are lucky to have a strong take-out base, and we are definitely looking forward to getting our patio open,” she said.
“Currently, we are working on extending our patio into our back area, which will give us more space to welcome back our customers when the time comes.”
To help with take-out sales, Rustica is on Uber Eats from Tuesday through Thursday.
“We have a great customer base and we’ve also seen a lot of new faces, which I find surprising. We’ve had lots of people trying us out for the first time, which is really great.”
Currently, Rustica is operating with nine employees; typically for the summertime, it would have 20. Clarke is hoping to get her summer staff back on payroll by June 14.
“I’m hoping this situation is very temporary, and my main hope is once they reopen us we will never have to close again. It’s such an emotional time for everyone involved,” she said.
“It’s been so hard to staff or plan anything. There is so much unknown in this industry right now.”
Studabakers Beachside Restaurant owner Joe Winacott is also looking forward to reopening his popular patio. The waterfront restaurant relies on the summer months and patio weather for its largest source of income.
“The timing of being closed right now is not ideal. We’ve had nice patio-worthy days for the last couple of weeks now, so it’s definitely hurt us,” Winacott said.
Winacott is aware of the province's timeline for Stage 1 going into effect on June 14. However, he is hopeful that patios will be able to open beforehand.
“I would assume that we would be open a bit earlier than June 14, because vaccinations have ramped up a lot, but obviously I’m not holding my breath on that,” he said.
The biggest shocker to local restaurants like Studabakers was that in-door dining isn’t set to re-open until the province reaches Stage 3, which is projected to be sometime in August when 70 to 80 per cent of adults in Ontario are vaccinated with one dose, and 25 per cent are fully vaccinated.
“That was a bit of a shock because now things are worse than they were last year when we could open indoor dining in July,” Winacott said.
“The fact that we are getting pushed back further with all these vaccinations and numbers coming down is a little confusing.”
While Winacott is frustrated with the province's reopening plan, and lobbying provincial officials has yet to change anything, he says Studabakers will just keep rolling with the punches.
“We are just fortunate to be a restaurant with a large patio. We won’t be doing as good as we usually do come June 14, but we will be doing OK,” he said.
“I just feel bad for the restaurants who don’t have patio access and will have to wait until August or whenever they give us the green light.”
Currently, Studabakers has been offering a take-out menu which has been successful enough to keep the restaurant open and have six employees keep working. However, the restaurant usually employees 50 people through the summer, most of which are college and university students.
“These are kids who rely on this as their summer job, and this summer by the time we need them when in-door dining opens in August, they will be a few weeks away from returning to school,” Winacott explained.
“There won’t be much of a point in bringing the kids back for a week or two, so the next challenge that we are concerned with is being able to staff our restaurant for the late summer months."
