Businesses across the province are no longer required to implement the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP) and some Cochrane restaurant owners are relieved to see the light at the end of a trying two-year tunnel.
For some businesses, abiding by the mandate meant losing 70 per cent or more of their total sales from patrons who would otherwise be able to eat at the restaurant.
"Our dine-in sales have fluctuated between 30 to 20 per cent," said Heather Johnson, co-owner of Cabeza Grande Tacos and Tequila. "Maybe some days we were as high as 40, but when we're ticking like a normal restaurant should, 80 per cent of our sales come from people dining in."
Premier Jason Kenney announced in a Feb. 8 press conference that the program would no longer be mandated as of midnight that evening as part of the province's plan to phase out COVID-19 restrictions.
Johnson said the restaurant has been bustling since.
"We have doubled our sales in the last two days compared to how we had done the week before," she said.
While the restaurant is happy to finally have more business, Johnson said she wishes there had been more notice so they could have better prepared for how busy they were about to be.
"I had people on the first night who were shocked that I was the only one working," she said. "And I had to explain to them that I only served four tables last week.
"Just because Kenney drops the mandates doesn't mean I have staff at a whim — many of them went to the Calgary Flames game that night because the mandate was lifted and they, too, wanted to go out with their friends."
It was encouraging, Johnson said, to see patrons' patience and understanding of the situation, especially after seeing the opposite exhibited when restrictions were first implemented.
"All of my tables were phenomenal," she said. "When the restrictions were adopted in the first lockdown, it was a little different because there was just a wave of people not being nice to service staff and the retail industry. It's not my 15-year-old host's decision that you have to wear a mask or scan a QR code."
The restaurant had one of its highest grossing days on its opening day last April, but they couldn't host an event to celebrate due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place then. They will be hosting their one-year grand opening in May of this year instead.
"We're going to wait till the weather's nice so we can get the patio pumpin' and I have dreams of Mariachi bands and all that fun stuff," said Johnson.
Welcome back
Owner of Donair on the Run Camille Elain said he was fortunate enough that his business was not hit as hard as many other local restaurants, as they were operating mainly for take-out and deliveries even prior to the pandemic.
Though, the sting of having to turn away some of their loyal customer base after serving the community for almost 18 years was difficult, he said.
"Just being able to welcome everyone back in my restaurant was really important to me," said Elain. "The vibe of just having everybody in the dining room enjoying their meals the other day was fantastic."
While he acknowledges it wasn't really his decision as a restaurant owner to mandate the REP, he felt compelled to do something to let people know their absence was felt.
"I did a little bit of a promo just to welcome everyone back," said Elain, who was offering a one-day dine-in deal on a donair and beer from Rocky View Brewing Company. "I definitely wanted to do something to let people know they were missed and that they are welcome back."
Elain said it didn't make sense for Donair on the Run to continue implementing the REP. The restaurant moved locations to keep up with demand and to allow for more dining space four years ago.
"I've become friends with a lot of people through my business and I have a lot of good relationships with people — having to turn them down, saying you can't dine in my dining room was hard for me," he said. "It was an easy decision to get rid of the QR code and the exemption program.
"People continue to support us and want to see us succeed, and that's wonderful, and I just want to be able to return something to that."
Questions remain
In response to the Alberta Government's decision to phase out restrictions, the Alberta Hospitality Association (AHA) released a statement calling the announcement a "move in the right direction," but one that still leaves the industry in a "precarious position."
"It is evident that the general public and the media do not fully understand how businesses in the hospitality industry have been, and will continue to be, impacted until all restrictions are lifted," the statement reads.
The association goes on to ask why the REP was lifted before other restrictions such as table capacity and curfews.
It claims that without loosening additional restrictions, operators will continue to endure "huge losses," and goes on to question the validity of the curfew restriction, which they say has "no data to support, or deny, that [its] had any influence on the spread of COVID with the current variant as there was no testing or contact tracing in the province."
The AHA said it is requesting, once again, to meet with government decision makers to discuss the current reopening plan, the effects the industry has faced over the last two years, and how they can successfully move forward.
