GLASSES clinked for the first time in months on Monday as many, almost exclusively vaccinated, took to prime venues in and around Port-of-Spain.
People turned out en masse months after restaurants and bars shut up shop. They were there merely for the experience, for the company in a public setting, and it showed on their faces.
Francis Oliver, manager of Buzo, a popular and subtly ornate Italian restaurant in Newtown, Port of Spain, told Newsday its reception to reopening was incredible, if not for a 50 per cent capacity restriction.
“We lost some tables but no less the setting,” Oliver said.
“We can’t do anymore.”
The tables were spaced the requisite six feet apart. But given the layout of the restaurant, much of the floor, prime real estate, was wasted.
“Where there were tables for four, we would’ve had to close it to two persons to create that space of six-foot distance.”
Asked about the restaurant’s ability to recoup the losses after the lengthy closure, in addition to a limited capacity, compounded with vaccine restrictions, the manager said, “There’s no way of telling about the losses in terms of a dollar amount and we don’t really know what we’re looking into as well with this reopening (whether) it made sense.
Without trying to stir any pot, he suggested the people who came out to dine were not vaccine-hesitant but were eager to return to a life of normalcy.
They indeed did appear so as faces glowed.
[caption id="attachment_918500" align="alignnone" width="1024"] WE'RE OPEN: Staffers from Jenny's On The Boulevard, from left, Faraz Hosein, Deneshia Ellis, Arnold Cheddi, Johnathan Sharma, owner Jennifer "Jenny" Sharma, and Dale Ifill give the thumbs up in the kitchen where they prepared hot, fresh meals to dine-in customers on Monday evening. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB -[/caption]
Just after 9 pm, Newsday visited Jenny’s on the Boulevard, a staple of Cipriani Boulevard for 30-plus years. and spoke with owner Jenny Sharma, who mingled with guests and staff as they left. She lives nearby and said she expected to be among the last to leave the premises.
“We restructured in the event that people do not get vaccinated because a lot aren’t.
Sharma is vaccinated and said her staff, too, is vaccinated against covid19.”
Some of her staff, of course, had second thoughts about the process, but she said she reasoned with them.
“(I’ve told them) people are dying from covid more than they are dying from the vaccine (which) was created (to combat) covid. So, it’s up to you, no pressure.”
She said they mostly listened to her reasoning and suggested other employers adopt strategies of education and reasoning.
Jenny’s, as it’s commonly referred, was fortunate not to suffer a similar fate to perhaps hundreds of restaurants, bars, clubs, and any combination of the aforementioned since late April when the Prime Minister announced a series of serious measures to curb the spread of the pandemic.
Thousands have been tossed on the breadline but, fortunately, Jenny’s still has the vast majority of her d
