Wave of cancellations at restaurants | “I just saw my turnover collapsing”

Growing concerns about the health situation in Quebec are already being felt among restaurateurs. Their reservation books have melted visibly since the Legault government’s request to employers to reinstate teleworking and to hold “smaller gatherings”. They receive numerous calls from customers wishing to cancel their office Christmas or birthday dinner, resulting in the loss of several thousand dollars in sales.

Nathaelle Morissette
Press

“It was almost instantaneous! », Launches Martin Guimond, owner of Saint-Bock, a brasserie on Saint-Denis Street in Montreal. Tuesday, barely a few hours after the press briefing given by the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, the telephone began to ring at his establishment in the Latin Quarter. Groups of 20, 15 and 8 people, for example, decided to postpone the festivities, much to Mr. Guimond’s surprise.

“I just lost between $ 5,000 and $ 7,000 in sales,” he calculates. Our bread and butter, it’s the holiday season. I just saw my turnover collapsing, ”he says, adding that he had barely slept overnight.

As he was preparing to experience a very busy Christmas period – he was even starting to refuse reservations – Mr. Guimond claims “to have run everywhere” to find wine, a commodity difficult to find since the three-day strike. which occurred in November in the warehouses of the Société des alcools. “I just bought too much alcohol,” he says now, counting down his cancellations.

The wave of cancellations

Marc-André Jetté, owner of the Hoogan et Beaufort restaurant, also found himself with too many bottles on his hands. He had also roamed the city for wine. However, he risks opening a few bottles, since each time the phone rings, he says, a customer calls to cancel.

Thursday, he was to receive a group of 100 people … which ultimately will not show up. Same scenario for Friday, where he had to serve 200 customers. Examples like these, Marc-André Jetté had several to list. “Several tens of thousands of dollars are falling at the moment. It’s huge, ”adding that the holiday season is the most lucrative time of the year.

Marc-André Jetté admits that he did not foresee that Mr. Dubé’s press briefing would have a domino effect. “When the government said everyone was going to telecommute again, I didn’t think it was going to affect me like that and take away as much business as that. Everything I had is being canceled. ”

Downtown, the owner of the Helena and Portus 360 restaurants, Helena Loureiro, did not hide her bad mood over the announcement from Quebec. “The government, I think it went a little too fast in alarming everyone,” she says. We have to learn to live with this virus and we must all be careful. ”

“Christmas groups are really happening this week,” she adds. I was supposed to have 124 reservations at the Portus for lunch and finally, I end up with 66… if everyone shows up. ”

For her two restaurants, she estimates she has losses of several thousand dollars. In a bid to save the day, she asked her staff to confirm all upcoming bookings and now requires a 25% deposit, a practice she had never resorted to.

For its part, the Corporation of bar tenants directly appealed to Justin Trudeau, reminding him that the latest news brought a “wind of fear” prompting customers to make cancellations. “The owners of bars and restaurant-bars are, once again, among the first skinned by the pandemic,” she wrote in her letter to the Prime Minister.

Asked about these numerous cancellations, Martin Vézina, director of public and governmental affairs for the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ), is not ready to say that it is a “generalized situation”, since all restaurateurs do not live this nightmare. However, he wishes to affirm that dining rooms remain safe places frequented exclusively by people who have been adequately vaccinated. “It’s much safer than the office meeting room,” he says.