The salvation of restaurants goes through the terrace

Terrace season is slowly starting in Montreal – and across the province. As soon as the mercury crosses twenty degrees, the chairs grow on the sidewalks like crocuses in the sun. With the labor shortage already forcing them to reduce their opening hours, are restaurateurs as happy as their customers with the opening of the terraces?

The Isle de Garde brewery is located on rue Beaubien, a stone’s throw from Plaza Saint-Hubert, in Montreal. Its terrace is vast and recognized by the people of the neighborhood. On weekend mornings, customers of the nearby AUTUMN bakery sit there to sip their coffee and eat their croissants.

“It’s very fun to see,” explains Simon Chantal, co-owner of Isle de Garde. When you open a restaurant, it’s to create a cheerful place where people meet and relax. The terrace is really made for that. »

At Isle de Garde, however, customers will have to be patient: the establishment waits at 1^er May to erect its structure which overlooks the street, anticipating that the mercury at the end of April will dampen the ardor of Montrealers who dream of eating outside.

This will also give the team time to adjust the offer. With the shortage of labor in the world of restaurants, expanding the surface area in restaurants brings its share of challenges.

At Isle de Garde, the terrace will add 92 seats (full capacity) for the restaurant which has around 120, inside. However, the greatest challenges for the company are not in the service, but in the kitchen. Impossible to find divers and cooks in the current context, explains Simon Chantal. It is therefore the menu that will be reviewed to gain in efficiency during the terrace season, so that customers receive the service to which they are accustomed.

Take advantage of the first rays

At the other end of the city, in the South-West, the vast terrace of the Messorem brewery has been open, full capacity, for a big week. “Easter Monday was already full,” says Louis-Philippe Dubé, representative for the establishment, which is very popular with lovers of gourmet beers. And terrace: Messorem offers a huge interior courtyard to its customers (and their dogs!) open every day and until the first cold days of autumn.

The extra employees are already at work and a very busy weekend is expected. No question of missing the first really warm rays.

Same philosophy for the Beaufort restaurant, in a completely different register.

Jean-François Girard will install a few tables on the sidewalk of the Plaza Saint-Hubert this evening, Friday, if he quickly obtains his permit. Its permanent terrace will have 28 seats.

The Beaufort clientele is different from that of a brasserie. On beautiful evenings, people go out more and sit outside, explains the owner, who speaks more of a shift in customers rather than an increase. However, customers who eat out tend to stay for a shorter time, which increases turnover and momentum.

The restaurateur hopes that the City will be generous for the renewal of its permit, which has offered a very advantageous pandemic price – around 5% of the usual rate. If this preferential rate were maintained, it would provide indirect assistance to restaurateurs who not only have to deal with the labor shortage, but also an increase in the price of raw materials, which imposes a great creative effort on their menus, maintains Jean-Francois Girard.

“Restaurants are going through a period of change right now,” he recalls. We have operating costs that have increased, due to salary increases. Grocery costs have increased and we are struggling to adjust prices for customers. »

The restaurateur would also have liked the Plaza Saint-Hubert to be pedestrianized from the coming summer, but the project has been postponed until the summer of 2024. “The terraces are very joyful and very happy when there are a lot of people who travel on foot, says Jean-François Girard. It takes a crowd of people. »

In Montreal, it is the boroughs that take care of the regulations for the terraces of businesses that are set up on the “public domain”. In Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, the terrace season extends from 1^er May to October 31, but the borough allows restaurant owners who wish to do so to set up shop as soon as the first fine weather arrives, provided they have their permit.

“The patio season is vital for the industry. This increases service capacity, but it is also an experience sought by customers, says Martin Vézina, vice-president of public and governmental affairs at the Association des restaurateurs du Québec. We are currently seeing that operators are filling positions for the terrace season. It is obvious that in times of shortage, it is crucial to have the people necessary to precisely offer the experience that customers are looking for. »