Local GTA Based restaurants have been hard hit with this Corona Virus. The Ontario government has closed dine in, this had particularly hurt restaurants that had a focus on dine-in, banquet halls, and bars. With the limitation of 5 people in gatherings, closure of offices and schools many catering companies have also had a huge hit to their business.
In my opinion all food service business need to be open, some income is better than no income. We need to bootstrap, get back to basics and open those doors. Here are a few steps to keep in mind:
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Simplify
- Menu – Keep your menu simple, perhaps temporarily remove some slow moving items and focus on your high volume, higher margin items.
- Ordering Process – Make sure your menu is clear, your items are easy to understand. Offer convenient safe options like Curbside Pick-up, and Delivery.
- Payment Process – Simplify how people pay, encourage tap and card processing – limit cash transactions.
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Take Precautions
- PPE – Ensure that your employees have the PPE they need to be safe. Face masks, gloves, face shields and hand sanitizer are few key essentials that most of your team will expect you to provide.
- Social Distancing – Try to maintain social distance as much as possible, in the kitchen, front of house and between your team and customers. A good idea is using high visibility tape to ‘box’ out people, so they maintain distance.
- Barriers – Try to get plexi-glass barriers in high traffic areas, between front & back of house, between front of house and customers. Many local printing / sign companies have switched their business into creating these barriers.
- Get it open!
Written by: Fahmad Parvaiz
A1 Cash and Carry has been supplying local Toronto Area (GTA) restaurants for over 20 years, we have ensured we have all the necessary PPE available for our restaurant customers. We also have a social distancing policy to ensure the safety of our team and customers.
