Restaurant owners suffered significant food and financial losses to start the year 2022, following their closure decreed just 24 hours before the expected evening of December 31.
The L’Île-des-Sœurs and Magog branches of the Les Enfants Terribles restaurant had filled out their reservations book for the evening of New Year’s Eve.
“We focused on two branches to have an evening on the 31st, to allow customers who wanted to go out as has always been the ritual,” explains Francine Brûlé, founder of Les Enfants Terribles restaurants. “We had bought very high-end products, such as Icelandic cod, caviar, foie gras. We had a really special slate, ”she continues, in an interview with Press.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Francine Brûlé, founder of Les Enfants Terribles restaurants
Prime Minister François Legault had already declared that restaurants should close their doors at 10 p.m. and that their capacity should be reduced to 50%. But on December 30, unveiling a new round of sanitary measures, he announced that restaurants should be closed from 5 p.m. the next day.
“We were ready. So everything was unfrozen, in production, ”laments Mr.me Burnt. She has not yet calculated the financial losses associated with the cancellation of that evening or identified what happened to the food that had to be consumed because it could not be refrozen, saying she would discuss it with her team.
Following the announcement of the closure of the dining rooms, the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ) demanded that restaurateurs receive financial compensation for their food losses.
What hopes Laurent Farre, owner of the wine bar Le Rouge Gorge, located on avenue du Mont-Royal. He had ordered less food, fearing the restaurants would close again, but still suffer losses.
“We were careful, but we have oysters … We have a lot of things, all the same, that we will give to food banks or a little to our staff, who will suffer a lot. Then we are going to throw away a lot too, ”he says, referring to the open bottles of wine that were used to fill individual glasses.
Lunch boxes to compensate
The Enfants Terribles branches contacted all customers who had made a reservation on New Year’s Eve to ask if they wanted to come to the restaurant on December 30 or look for a meal to go on the 31st.
Several restaurateurs caught off guard have turned to this option. On social media, many restaurants in Old Montreal, which were planning a special New Year’s Day event, offered their customers to get take-out boxed lunches.
“We are going to get out of this. But I think of the small restaurants that have made purchases, on credit, thinking: “We are going to have enough to pay for what we bought, to do a little, to make a living.” Then they, I don’t know how they are going to do it, ”thinks Francine Brûlé.
December was already particularly difficult for restaurateurs. Khanh Pham, owner of Bistro CÔ ÚT, said that traffic to his establishment had fallen by 50%.
“It hurt us,” he says, pointing out that several group bookings, especially parties office, have been canceled.