The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Family island restaurants yesterday said they are looking forward to the return of indoor dining following the Prime Minister's easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Tiffany Johnson, general manager of Daddy Joes in Eluethera, told Tribune Business: “We haven’t reopened yet; we open tentatively on October 1. We don’t know what to expect, but we do know we have a lot of local support. During this closure we had a lot of requests. We were open during COVID but there was nothing really to speak about."

Daddy Joe’s is a hotel and a restaurant, and Ms Johnson added: “When we re-opened for the two weeks during the July re-opening, we had huge domestic support from people travelling from Nassau and other things like that. So those two weeks were almost as if we hadn’t been closed.

"Then we were shut down again, and then we had the two weeks when restaurants weren’t allowed to open, which was discouraging as well. I tried to keep my staff employed and we let go our part-times but we kept our full-timers trying to keep them afloat.

"Primarily we are a tourist venture and a tourism-based place with live music and that kind of thing," Ms Johnson continued. "There has been a change, but we are figuring out how we are going to pivot through this season. As a restaurant we are very hands on with our guests, so it is almost as if you are looking at an invisible enemy that you are facing, this invisible virus that is.

"We really can’t embrace the way we would normally embrace our customers. We have had lots of requests from locals since the island has just opened up. We are actually only going to open from Thursday to Sunday now, and we are looking at an outside deck that we hope to complete soon, which would pick up on some of the lost revenue inside. There are some people that would prefer to sit outside during this COVID time.

"Because we had to reduce our seating indoors to allow for social distancing we decided to do the outside part, and hopefully pick up on what we would lose on the inside. It’ a day-by-day thing, a week-by-week thing and, just based on the response and, right now, we are only looking at locals."

Mary Rolle, owner/operator of Mel’s Snack Shack in Eleuthera, said: “We are on the highland. We are conscious of what’s going on with the COVID-19, so we aren’t going to find many people that are going to be dining in now; they are forced to take it out to our deck.

"Most of the people would eat on my deck. My restaurant is by the waterfront, so they would take it out there under the cool trees. Most of the people would prefer to stay outside or on the beach, and they are not particular with coming inside anyway and eating any more. It’s not going to change anything for me anyway. It’s not going to take away from the business.”

Valencia Turnquest, general manager of Lloyd’s Sporting Lounge in Long Island, said: “It’s a lot better. We love it now; you could actually have people come in and sit down now instead of having takeout. Business has not picked up a lot but it is getting there. There are days where you are busy and other days where you don’t have much going on. Some weekends we are generally busier; not extremely busy, but better than through the week.”