PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

Ex­cit­ed, hope­ful and un­cer­tain.

These will be the vary­ing emo­tions fac­ing restau­rant and bar op­er­a­tors to­day as their es­tab­lish­ments re­sume in-house ser­vice in the on­go­ing COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“We’re ex­treme­ly hap­py that bars are re­open­ing on Mon­day thanks to the Gov­ern­ment and Mr Row­ley be­cause we were locked down for over three months. Thank God we don’t have rent to pay, so we were able to main­tain the staff that will be com­ing out to­mor­row,” Tim Lumkin, own­er of Cook­ing Vibez Restau­rant and Bar, said on Sun­day.

On Sun­day, Lumkin over­saw last-minute ren­o­va­tions at the Car­los Street, Wood­brook bar, which had been on­go­ing re­fur­bish­ment dur­ing the lock­down pe­ri­od. He ex­plained that they were al­so prepar­ing ad­just­ments to fall in line with the des­ig­nat­ed reg­u­la­tions for bars.

“This ac­tiv­i­ty has been go­ing on for a lit­tle while now, get­ting ready for the re­open­ing. Dur­ing the lock­down we de­cid­ed to do some ren­o­va­tion, we’re do­ing some new floor­ing, deck­ing. We did some ren­o­va­tion on the in­side,” he said.

“Well, we have to fol­low the guide­lines that peo­ple should be six feet apart, the ta­ble will be six feet away. I think cer­tain ta­bles can ac­com­mo­date ten peo­ple, so we will be ready for that.”

Lumkin said based on feed­back, he was ex­pect­ing a busy open­ing day.

“We’ve been get­ting phone calls by the mile, wait­ing for the re­open­ing and they mak­ing book­ings al­ready,” he said.

At Brook­lyn Bar, oblique­ly op­po­site Cookin’ Vibez, last-minute prepa­ra­tion was al­so un­der­way, but the bar’s op­er­a­tor, who asked not to be named, was far more sub­dued with ex­pec­ta­tions. He said he did not ex­pect a ma­jor crowd to­day, apart from the few who would like to ex­pe­ri­ence hav­ing a drink in a bar af­ter the three-month lay­off.

In­ter­im pres­i­dent of the Bar Own­ers/Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad & To­ba­go Teron Mo­han mean­while ad­mit­ted the mem­ber­ship had mixed views about the re­open­ing pe­ri­od.

“My bar per­son­al­ly and a cou­ple of us, we are up and ready to go. We fi­nalised our arrange­ments up to yes­ter­day (Sat­ur­day) and the nec­es­sary im­prove­ments, all the gears for staff. So to­mor­row (Mon­day) morn­ing we can try and get start­ed,” he said.

“Some of the oth­er bars who were in a more dif­fi­cult po­si­tion than we were, they are fac­ing dif­fi­cul­ty in restart­ing and that comes in terms of the af­ford­abil­i­ty of the im­prove­ments, the af­ford­abil­i­ty to re­stock. Be­cause many of them are still left with old goods on their hands that they can­not be ex­changed from the var­i­ous dis­trib­u­tors. So they are hav­ing a re­stock­ing is­sue which they are kind of look­ing for so­lu­tions to fig­ure out.”

As for what crowds he ex­pect­ed, Mo­han ad­mit­ted it was hard to say.

“It might be too ear­ly to say, it might be dif­fi­cult to get a grasp on it,” Mo­han said.

“I know per­son­al­ly, from keep­ing in touch with some of my pa­trons and even some of my friends, they are look­ing for­ward to the re­open­ing. They are in an­tic­i­pa­tion of be­ing able to go­ing back to their favourite wa­ter­ing hole. So the ex­cite­ment is there.”

At Movi­eTowne, work­ers told Guardian Me­dia that prepa­ra­tion had been on­go­ing for much of the past week. Sneeze guards have been in­stalled at the con­ces­sion stalls, while the cin­e­mas were cleaned and sani­tised. How­ev­er, the restau­rant and bars on the com­pound aren’t go­ing to ful­ly re­open to­day.

Su­per­vi­sor of Trad­er Jacks restau­rant and bar, Saman­tha Mon­dezie, said the restau­rant will not open un­til Wednes­day.

She ex­plained that much of their traf­fic was tied to the cin­e­ma, so in­stead, they would take the next cou­ple days to bring the restau­rant in line with reg­u­la­tions.

Mon­dezie said the pick-up sales had not been great but the store had been able to keep all their staff, adding busi­ness would de­ter­mine how the ros­ter­ing would work go­ing for­ward.

“We know that it is not go­ing to be the same, I am hop­ing that all our staff are able to come out,” she said.

An of­fi­cial at Jaxx In­ter­na­tion­al restau­rant said they too would be closed un­til mid­week as they pre­pare for dine-in ser­vices.