Tobago restaurants tweak menus to lure customers

It’s no secret that the covid19 pandemic continues to place severe financial hardship on businesses.

And Tobago’s food sector is no exception.

In fact, while the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus forced many restaurant owners to reinvent their businesses to stay afloat, others are still struggling to survive.

On November 7, the Prime Minister announced restaurants and other food establishments will be allowed to resume in-house dining at a 50 per cent capacity with groups of no more than ten people. But no alcohol is to be served.

Dr Rowley did not announce any change to this restriction when he addressed the covid19 briefing on Saturday in Tobago.

Previously, restaurants were allowed to offer take-away services only.

The resumption of in-house dining offered a reprieve to those in the sector.

Some restaurant owners told Newsday they are willing to work with the measures outlined by the prime minister and hope it will help generate some much-needed income.

Former Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association president Nicholas Hardwicke said while he is grateful for the return of in-house dining, restaurateurs are still at a disadvantage owing to the limited number of people coming to the island.

“It (in-house dining) has reduced your loss but it certainly has not been a money-making venture,” he said.

Noting Tobago already has a small, thinly-spread population, Hardwicke said given the pandemic, there are limitations on what Tobagonians can do outdoors.

However, he said his Black Rock-based restaurant, Seahorse Inn, which targets a mostly international clientèle, is faring better than he expected since it began receiving patrons, two weeks ago.

“But it is still a challenge because the physical reality is that there just aren’t that many people visiting the island at the moment. And we are heavily dependent on that.”

In addition, he regarded Tobago as a self-sufficient island where many of its citizens cook and, as a result, do not necessarily see the need to go out to dine and potentially expose themselves to covid19.

Even so, Hardwicke said Seahorse Inn, a medium-sized business, has enjoyed tremendous local support over the years.

“Everybody is treated as a VIP because we focus on the service element and consistency of the food.”

He said his 27 staff members are the backbone of the restaurant.

Saying there were no lay-offs during the lockdown, Hardwicke said his employees were financially compensated.

He told Newsday: “When the business is here, we get our fair share of it and when it’s not here you are left with a slightly different perspective.

“But the staff are our business. We have been here for 26 years and many of those staff have been with us for many years.”

Hardwicke said he is a great believer in trying to maintain cohesion because it is a recipe for consistency.

“I don’t see it as rocket science. It is good business practice and so to keep them on site, to keep them safe and feeling positive and secure has been a big part of what we are trying to achieve during the last seven months.

“Whether they have been working or not, we have tried to find things for them to do. Some may be cooks on one day but something else on another.”

He said the lockdown also gave them an opportunity to improve the restaurant’s physical space and to do training.

With the resumption of in-house dining, Hardwicke said the Seahorse Inn did not have to implement any new covid19 measures.

He said the restaurant has always been “hot to trot” on the World Health Organisation guidelines regarding covid19 protocols.

Hardwicke said: “It is not even a case of doing the minimum to qualify because we really want to feel safe in our own space, because this is a serious situation and it should not be taken lightly.

“From the very beginning, the emphasis was on personal hygiene, social distancing, putting the appropriate resources in place, hand sanitisers.”

Hardwicke said the Seahorse Inn had shut down its bar long before the Government had taken the decision to do so.

“We just didn’t think it was appropriate to have people congregating in a small space. But we are fortunate in that we offer an outdoor dining experience. So that helps with the protocols.”

He added: “I think even after the pandemic has subsided, many of those health guidelines and protocols will remain in place because you only around the corner from the next disaster. So, I would be encouraging the staff and customers to continue.”

Hardwicke said the restaurant has not embarked on any special promotion to woo patrons but is experimenting with some food styles.

“We are doing things that people won’t necessarily associate with us. So, during the past seven months, we have offered what I call ‘comfort food’ but done with a slightly higher focus on quality ingredients.

“At the end of the day, you always trying to produce something that people wouldn’t be inclined to do at home.”

Using lasagne as an example, he said: “You can do a gourmet version of it and you can find ways to offer it cost-effectively to customers to keep them interested in coming back.”

While Makara restaurant owner Ali Makara welcomes the return of in-house dining, he believes the food service industry is not likely to resume normal operations anytime soon.

“It is too uncertain. That is why restaurants cannot be back to normal for quite a while,” he told Newsday.

Makara said the Buccoo-based restaurant, which offers fine dining, will re-open its doors this weekend.

And he is hoping the increase in flights between Trinidad and Tobago will draw visitors to his restaurant.

Makara said the restaurant, which has been in existence for the past five years, did not fare well with its take-away service over the past few months.

“Tobago is not really a fine-dining, take-away experience. People will prefer to buy fast food. So, it was rather slow.

“We have noticed, you open for fine-dining and take-away service and you get two and three people coming.

“We don’t find that Tobagonians, because the travel is restricted from Trinidad and there is no foreign travel, very rare they will buy a fine-dining, take away and, of course, being so hard-pressed for money, it was too slow to keep the restaurant open.”

Makara said the restaurant was forced into a situation where “paying salaries to staff was costing more than anything else.”

During the lockdown, Makara said he gave his eight staff members half-pay for the first two months.

He said they later made claims for payments through the NIS, “because I could not afford to pay them.”

Makara said he gave them the assurance they would return to work once there was a slackening of restrictions.

He claimed his workers were not badly affected.

“A lot of them had morning jobs and we operate from 5pm to 10pm. So, I would say 80 per cent of the staff was part-time because they had other jobs.”

Makara said covid19 protocols are in effect at his restaurant.

Customers’ temperatures are checked on entry and the restaurant is also equipped with sanitising implements.

Regarding physical distancing, Makara said patrons will be seated in groups of eight.

Staff, he said, will be required to wear masks while they are serving. Those responsible for cutlery and cleaning the service area will also wear gloves.

Makara said the restaurant did not introduce any special promotion to woo customers but has reduced the prices on some of the items on its menu.

The restaurant also reduced its stock.

“You don’t want to overstock because then there might be another lockdown.”

Makara said he had to give away a lot of food items during the last lockdown.

“Now, you have to be careful how you are stocking because you don’t know what will happen.”

Others, like businessman Kirton Sorias, are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

Since Rowley’s announcement, two weeks ago, Sorias said the doors of his restaurants, Mesoreen Café Bistrow and Crafter’s Stakehouse & Grill, have remained shut.

“I am looking at the pandemic,” he said.

“The way the numbers are going right now, we are not sure if we are going to lock down again. Unless there is a vaccine, I believe Trinidad can lock down again. That is my belief.

“Because as soon as you relax everything, people are going to go out there and start doing the same thing they not supposed to do.”

For Sorias, the issue is one of dollars and cents.

“Imagine you invest maybe $80,000 to open back your business, buying goods and you have to shut down again.”

He said restaurants and bars have lost millions of dollars since the national lockdown in March.

“That affected me a lot in terms of my businesses. So, at the moment, I am not going to risk putting out more money to open and then shut down again. I am just looking at how the pandemic is going.”

Sorias said he is paying leases to operate his businesses.

“So, once I open, I have to pay my landlord a rent and operating restaurants like mine without a bar is not profitable if you have to pay staff, suppliers, your lease with only food (sales).”

He said the ban on serving alcohol is a blow to the establishment’s earning potential.

“So, there are some restaurant owners, they are going to open back their restaurants because most of them own the property. Some of them pay a very small rent so it may work for them. But I am looking at the pandemic to see how it progresses before making a decision.”

Sorias said his staff was not seriously affected by the lockdown during the past few months.

He said most of them already worked in other jobs part-time while others were redeployed to his villa Serene Inn and another small businesses.

Sorias said another national lockdown would be devastating for the Tobago economy.

“A lot of business owners are under enormous pressure. They are not making a profit to maintain their families and pay bills. It is just not happening.”