Maraval restaurants change direction for pandemic

Former restaurants and related businesses in Maraval had long lines of customers waiting to be served on Friday.

On Thursday El Pecos Grill on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, reopened as a registered supermarket, offering customers prepackaged food and grocery items.

The Aioli Restaurant in Ellerslie Plaza, Maraval, has kept open the "marketplace" open where it sells meals in take-out packages.

Katherine Aboud, a member of the Aioli work team, told Newsday the market plaza has been registered since 2013.

Aboud said: "We have been operating for seven years as a restaurant in the upper part and as a market on the ground floor of the mall, It is an extension adapted to the customer who wants their food to take away quickly."

While the restaurant is closed, the staff use it to prepare the meals offered in the market plaza.

"It has been a business concept implemented many years before the pandemic, with self-service included, but due to the restrictions, we are only offering food in packages," said Aboud.

Aioli also has refrigerated "emergency dinners" such as pizzas, chicken, lamb and soups among other items and many products typical of a gourmet food store..

“We are complying with all sanitary measures and regulations. We hope the pandemic passes and the lockdown is lifted to reopen the restaurant,” Aboud said.

At the Royal Palm Plaza on Saddle Road, there are reportedly daily long lines, especially around noon, to enter Kam Wah, which before the pandemic was a Chinese restaurant and is now an urban market.

Kam Wah's manager, who wanted to remain anonymous, answering questions from Newsday about the business's change of direction, said it was planned many months in advance.

“We have the market certificate since September 2020, but we are really working as such since mid-April 2021,” he said.

The change from restaurant to market applies only at the Kam Wah atthe Royal Palm Plaza, not its other branches.

"We now have a greater capacity to serve customers. It is an opportunity for business expansion," he said.

Like Aioli, Kam Wah offers various items and food in packages in order to comply with the covid19 regulations.