India’s restaurant business is reinventing itself to put the minds of customers at ease.
Here’s what they are doing.
One of the hardest-hit industries amid the Covid-19 pandemic has got to be the restaurant and hospitality sector. In India, restaurants were shut for months at end during the nation-wide lockdown, only to reopen to severely reduced footfall. Most diners are wary of hygiene and integrity of processes and staff in enclosed space, hence preferring eating at home versus going out, or rather, looking for outdoor dining options available.
If you are in a box your revenues are not crossing 40% of pre-pandemic levels, where as outdoor dining experiences are eating into the loss of those still stuck in the old ways.
Sridevi, Food Consultant, Bengaluru
New York City was facing a similar dilemma while trying to encourage diners to visit restaurants and practice social distancing at the same time. As per reports, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to make outdoor dining a permanent option for the thousands of restaurants. New York City’s ‘Open Streets’ program allowed restaurants to expand their outdoor dining areas options in as many as 85 car-free streets during the pandemic. “Open Restaurants was a big, bold experiment in supporting vital industry and reimagining our public space. And it worked,” de Blasio said in a statement. “We’re proud to extend and expand this effort to keep New York City the most vibrant city in the world. It’s time for a new tradition,” he added.
Cafe society returns to Paris as bars and bistros fill pavements. New relaxed rules on outdoor terraces for bars and restaurants is what owners feel will create a quintessentially Parisian summer vibe.
On a normal weekend, rue d’Aligre, near Place de la Bastille in Paris’s 12th arrondissement, is lined with raucous fruit and vegetable stalls and packed with shoppers and tourists heading for the historic Marché d’Aligre at its northern end. But now the stalls of the covered market are gone – they’ve moved to the open square in front of the food hall for easier social distancing – and the street’s bistro and bar owners are busy setting out tables and chairs on the pavement and in parking places.
And although cafes and restaurants can now reopen their inside spaces – albeit with reduced capacity due to social distancing regulations – Hidalgo has announced that the new terrace rules will last at least until the end of September.
This is an opportunity to permanently revolutionise the landscape of outdoor dining. Hidalgo has long talked about giving Paris back to Parisians by limiting car access, creating pedestrian streets and green areas, and prioritising bikes and trottinettes (kick scooters). “I am certainly in favour of a longer term extension of the enlargement of certain cafe terraces, as long as it is properly overseen by the municipality,” she said during a campaign walkabout of Aligre market at the weekend. “Most importantly, after all their efforts during the confinement, it is just a delight to see Parisians enjoying the liberty of meeting friends again on our famous pavement terraces.”
Mobile Restaurants from Hungry Wheels take the heart of the F&B industry to the last mile, create unforgettable outdoor experiences in never before imagined spaces, be it the garden of an apartment complex, an IT Park’s parking, Public parking lots, or your neighbourhood community park.
