Restaurant owners plan day of revolt, vow to reopen despite COVID-19 restrictions
Posted January 15, 2022 1:08 pm.
Some Quebec restaurant owners have simply had enough.
Shut down for nearly 12 months total since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and recently forced to close their dining rooms with 24 hours notice in late December, some restaurateurs have decided to protest.
They say they are opening their doors on Jan. 30 in opposition of public-health orders.
Restaurants like Cafe-Teria Europa in Laval and Kesté pizzeria in Montreal’s Mile End are on board with the plan.
“Why the small businesses have to continue to suffer? Why do I have to work 24 hours a day to not have failure with my business?” said Gianluca Esposito, the chef and owner of Kesté.
“We need somebody to really stand up and tell the government, ‘listen I did my part and on top of that I pay my taxes.’ I’m not here to say, ‘I don’t wanna pay tax, I don’t want to do this.’ No, absolutely not.”
#WATCH: "We need somebody to really stand up and tell the government listen I did my part," says chef and owner of Kesté pizzeria Gianluca Esposito on his decision to re-open his dining room to customers on Jan. 30 against public health measures. @CityNewsMTL pic.twitter.com/IfSeqc9Vy3
— Brittany Henriques (@BritHenriques) January 15, 2022
Last month the Quebec government forced restaurants to close their dining rooms.
A previous batch of restrictions forced restaurants to cap capacity at 50 per cent, with a strict 10 p.m. closing time.
Esposito says he’s been following rules for the last two years, but he’s being left with no choice.
“We keep on hearing from the government: ‘restrictions, you have to put up a sanitary station, you have to put up some kind of security things.’ Of course our job is to follow that and we do that,” he said. “We are vaccinated, we make passport vaccination, you can only come in if you have vaccination.
“We did everything the government told us to do. So in that case if you tell everybody you have to get vaccinated and we do that, why do you close me then?”
Exterior of Keste pizzeria. (Credit: CITYNEWS/Hayder Mahdy)
Support from public on social media
When restaurant Cafe-Teria Europa posted on its social media that it would take part in the one-day boycott of restrictions, messages of support came flooding in.
“We cannot continue to comply to these arbitrary measures that have proven to NOT be effective,” the Laval restaurant wrote on its Instagram page. “If we do not take a stand, small business’s (sic) will perish and will only be a thing of the past.
“We kindly ask for your presence on this day to show support for ALL business’s (sic) suffering.
“We are not onboard with the divide that has been created – your vaccine passport status is IRRELEVANT. Everyone is welcome.”
Exterior of Cafe-Teria Europa in Laval. (Credit: CITYNEWS/Hayder Mahdy)
Quebec restaurant assoc. predicts “major consequences”
Quebec’s restaurant association disagrees with the move.
“I don’t condone that kind of action but I understand why to resort to that kind of action,” said Martin Vezina of the Association des Restaurateurs du Québec. “But as I said there will be major consequences to resort to that way.”
Other frustrated restaurant owners also expressing feelings of discontent with the provincial government.
“I said to the government, all my business is safe,” said Eric Luksenberg, the owner of Chez Eric. “Open the door now, it’s enough.
“We have the law for everybody. You know I don’t want anything with police, with anybody. I said we are nice people, we do a good job. I want to open when the government says it’s right you can open.”
But some feel opening up on Jan. 30 is worth the risk.
“We know that we’re probably going to have a fine,” said Esposito. “We have many people who are going to stand up for us and support that.”
Cafe-Teria Europa’s Instagram post. (Credit: INSTAGRAM/
cafeteria_europa)
The Association des Restaurateurs du Québec insists the government needs to come up with a better plan.
“I believe there will be more variants and we need to be more prepared and not just use the shotgun and shutting down our dining rooms. We need to think outside the box and find another way,” said Vezina.
“I talk to many owners and the main factor that they are seeing is in the relaunch and reopening, we won’t have any labour because what we’ve heard and seen from our workers is that ‘I don’t want to work here anymore in the restaurant industry because every five months I go on unemployment or compensation program. I want to work 12 months a year.’”
