Ravi Rembarren is struggling to see a future for his restaurant in light of the latest health orders that have closed all beverage rooms, entertainment venues, bingo halls and casinos in Winnipeg.
He owns Four Crowns Inn on McPhillips Street and leveraged his own house to purchase it outright in January after partnering in the business for six years. At that point, the business was on solid ground, but then COVID-19 happened. They made it through the first set of shutdowns and scraped through the summer, but the latest two-week shuttering which went into effect on Monday may be the final straw.
“I can make it through two weeks but if it extends then the discussion becomes really serious,” said Rembarren, who is not against precautions as he has immunocompromised people in his life.
He said he has a dining hall in the hotel that he will convert to a restaurant area, but the atmosphere is not the same and expects to have difficulty bringing people in.
Four Crowns falls into what the Dr. Brent Roussin, the provincial chief public health officer, referred to as a grey zone. The business has been more of a traditional beverage room but had recently converted to more of a dining environment, one that welcomes minors before 8 p.m. They did this under a family friendly beverage room licence with the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Association of Manitoba. Still they have been swept up in the order even their focus is food.
The province enacted the shutdown of the industry in broad strokes with little discussion with stakeholders — the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservice Association said they were not consulted — prior to the order going out on Friday afternoon. Roussin said they consulted with the industry prior to going to Orange in Winnipeg at the beginning of October but were forced to act quickly after three days of record numbers.
“What I want the government to do, before they make calls of shutting down one specific industry, I want them to talk to that industry, I want them to consult with the LGCA,” said Rembarren, who noted he has been spending $6,000 a month on PPE and other COVID-related health orders. “Never mind the guys that have gotten multiple tickets for disrespecting COVID, those guys are allowed to open their doors today and we are not. That’s extremely painful.”
One of the most difficult things for him was to call in staff and lay them off again, this time not knowing if they would be able to reopen.
“I had single mothers crying in my office on Friday asking if they have a job, asking what they were going to do and I’m lost and I told them ‘I’m in the same boat they’re in. I have no idea and I’m sorry,’ ” he said. “It’s a terrible feeling to do that over and over to people.”
Shaun Jeffrey, the executive director for the MRFA, said the LGCA has also stopped issuing temporary dining room permits that previously would have been a lifeline for business models like Rembarren’s that have transitioned away from being a traditional bar.
He said the industry has been singled out unfairly, pointing to no public exposures announced by the province at restaurant or bar since Sept. 26. The closest there has been was a possible exposure at The Club/Santarem Recreation Centre on Oct. 6.
However, it is the hospitality industry that is taking the brunt of the new health orders, the third round of health orders in a month for the industry.
“It’s horrendous,” said Jeffrey, noting they have started a #SaveMBRestaurants campaign on social media. “These restaurants are on the teetering brink of disaster of totally closing down of not existing anymore and that’s just another punch in the gut.”
Roussin said in his update on Monday, that not all exposures are made public, just when they cannot track down all of the contacts with the exception of schools when they provide information on every case.
“Just following those reports isn’t sufficient to know what’s going on out there,” he said.
Gerard Fletcher and his wife have owned Shannon’s Irish Pub and Eatery on Carlton Street for the last 15 years and had last call on Saturday. Fletcher said there is some hope on the horizon in the form of federal rent relief if it comes in time, but at this point they are trying to make the best of a bad situation.
They did manage to get a zero occupancy licence so they can still operate their kitchen for delivery or pickup. They did successfully during the first shutdown, but now they will be competing against restaurants that are permitted to have patrons sit down for a meal.
“We’re prepared for it, if it goes any longer I don’t know,” said Fletcher. “I’d like to think we’ve operated our business in a responsible way that we’re going to be prepared for it.”
Twitter: @JoshAldrich03
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
