The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Sandy Port restaurant’s proprietor says he is “blessed to be open” after enduring a three-month COVID-19 lockdown even though the prohibition on indoor dining will cost him 40 percent of normal revenues.

Jacques Carlino, owner/operator of the Blue Sail Bar & Grill, told Tribune Business that Friday represented the “first day back for three months”. Revealing that he opted against offering take-out or delivery services, he said: “I didn’t want to put my staff at risk for anything.

“I ended up looking after my staff for the last few months and we decided to close, but instead of doing nothing we decided to renovate the whole place. So everything is freshly repainted. We’ve redone our bathrooms and we tiled the kitchen. We did a lot of work and prepared ourselves for the reopening.”

Blue Sail had to reassess its entire seating area to comply with COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and has moved tables away from the main dining room. It has created a new, outdoor dining area closer to the beachside and realigned all tables to meet the Government’s guidelines for social distancing. Guests are also not allowed to walk around the restaurant or entire property without a mask on, and are only allowed to take their masks off when seated at a table.

“We have signage around the property and have made all of our customers aware of the social distancing requirements and the importance of wearing a mask,” Mr Carlino added. “We did a lot of signage for the front of the house and for the back of the house.

“We redesigned the menu. The placemat we normally use is not authorised for use by the Prime Minister’s order. He called for no porous table settings, and our table settings were made of straw, so we printed table settings now that are single-use and can be disposed of. We are also using the QR code, and it will lead you to our website’s menu for people who want to go completely touch-less.”

Mr Carlino said he spent a “long time” training his staff on the new protocols, and sought to comply by purchasing Bahamian. “All of our staff wear masks and face shields,” he added. “We kept everything Bahamian. We got hand sanitiser from John Watlings, and we are using the disinfectant from Blanco Bleach. All our signage is from Signarama, and our masks are form Androsia masks. We really tried to work locally.”

The entrepreneur retained all his staff during the COVID-19 lockdown, and has currently recalled 26 employees. During peak season Blue Sail can go up to 35 to 40 staff, but he added: “For now I have to see because right now I can’t bring back the full 40. It’s a low season and then there is hurricane season, so I have to see how it comes.”

While he will lose 40 percent of his daily revenue by not having the inside dining room available, Mr Carlino said he is just “blessed to be open. We are really going to miss tourism. Tourism accounts for us for a big chunk of our business. We get most of our business from Baha Mar, and also a bit from Sandy Port. We are affiliated with Sandy Port Beach Resort”.

Mr Carlino said he understood the Sandy Port Beach resort is reopening for local guests during next week, which will enable him to stay open longer. “We’re going to do well and I just hope the local market supports my business, but I’m really proud of what we’re done here to ensure that the place is safe for everybody,” he added.

“We had written a letter to the Prime Minister for ourselves, and wrote a protocol, about two weeks ago and I would like to think that this influenced his decision to allow for restaurants to reopen. There is no reason to not be open if you take the recommended precautions, because we have the luxury of space and - even on the inside - when we are allowed to open we can open up all of the windows.

“Right now I feel very confident that we require that all customers must have the mask on, and every time they move around the restaurant they have the mask on. We recommend social distancing but, when it is a party of the same family, then that is fine.”

Mr Carlino continued: “I feel good about The Bahamas. The Prime Minister did a fantastic job as far as I’m concerned. But I’m worried about opening up to the outside world at this time with over 2m people sick in America. As I tell my staff, I’m not afraid of you contaminating anybody, but I’m afraid somebody from the outside may come and contaminate you.

“So I want them to be fully protected and fully safe, and my customers, I want them to be fully safe. It’s important. I hope my colleague restaurateurs are behaving like I’m behaving, otherwise I’m going to look like the big bad wolf and everybody does no social distancing and makes no effort like I have done.

“We need to take it seriously. We are all back in business, we all want to make money and we all suffered, but we all want to be healthy and that’s number one as far as I’m concerned.”