Ottawa restaurants excited about accelerated reopening

Ottawa businesses are reacting to news the provincial government is accelerating its reopening plan.

As of midnight Thursday, social gathering limits will increase to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. Capacity limits will be lifted at most indoor public settings where proof of vaccination is required. This includes restaurants, meeting and event spaces, gaming establishments and “non-spectator areas” of gyms and cinemas.

Dave Longbottom owns Flora Hall Brewing. He says moving up the timeline even by a few days will make a difference. He says, “It is a business, ultimately it will mean the numbers will improve to the point that it is sustainable. The past years have been extremely painful for us and anyone in this business, and other businesses like gyms, hair salons.”

Longbottom says his staff and business are ready to operate at full capacity. He says, “We are all pretty excited, we have been anticipating a reopening for some time now, and at least we get an extra weekend out of it—I am pretty happy to hear. As a citizen of Ottawa, I am happy to see things slowly return to life!”

He says it may take time for everyone to feel comfortable returning to a restaurant that is at full capacity. “It is going to take time, customers are going to have to feel comfortable to go out, we have lots of great regular customers but there are plenty of people who are going to need to hear from our politicians and healthcare that it is safe to go out now,” says Longbottom.

Monday, Premier Doug Ford also announced his government is set to lift vaccine passport requirements in March.

Longbottom says businesses have learned to adjust throughout the entire pandemic and are ready to do so again. “It hasn’t been a big burden on us, and we will just do what we have done throughout the pandemic, and we will follow public health regulations,” he says.

Sala San Marco Event and Banquet Hall says this will help bring back staff to work. Tony Zacconi says, “The big thing is getting people back to work, a lot of my staff need their hours.”

“In this business, it isn’t like a restaurant where you can walk in and make a reservation tonight. When you are planning a party for 200 people, it takes time.”

Zacconi says people have already been calling to book events or up their capacity limits on events taken place in the next few weeks. “We had to shuffle a bunch of people around, so it is nice to give them a call back and say- ‘we are back in business, we can safely distance, and we can have your event!’ There are still weddings- people still want to get married!”

As of Thursday, seating capacity at sport and concert venues, as well as movie theatres, will be 50 per cent. The Ottawa Senators Hockey Club says they are adjusting welcome back more fans at the Canadian Tire Centre as of next Saturday’s game against the Boston Bruins.