Restos, malls upbeat over increased capacity, relaxed night restrictions – Times of India

Kolkata: With the night restriction time deferred by an hour to 11pm from Tuesday, restaurants and bars braced to welcome back the dining crowd who had largely gone missing due to the early shutdown. Since the ceiling on occupancy has been raised to 75% from 50%, the footfall will increase sharply, which could now be close to the pre-pandemic level, during the day as well, felt the Hotel and Restaurants’ Association of Eastern India (HRAEI).
“Easing of closing time and the occupancy ceiling will benefit the food and beverages industry and we now expect a return to near-normalcy. So far, we had been missing the dining crowd, which accounts for a major part of our sales. Since Kolkatans love to dine late, the 10pm closure had been keeping most of our patrons away. They will now return and with occupancy ceiling raised, we expect a pre-pandemic level situation soon,” said HRAEI president Sudesh Poddar, who owns Songhai and Manthan in central Kolkata.
He added that average footfall across restaurants in Kolkata had been 55%-60% over the last two weeks.
Mall operators, too, are delighted over the twin relaxations of allowing restaurants and multiplexes operate at 75% capacity and stay open till 11pm. “The steps announced by the government will catalyze a rapid return to normalcy. Footfall and business last week was 50% over the previous week,” said Acropolis mall general manager K Vijayan.
Quest, South City, Forum and the two City Centre malls also said the announcements would be great for dining crowd and cinema viewers. For the former, it will mean proper dinner without having to rush through the meal. And for the latter, there will be more shows to choose from. “January is traditionally a lean month. So it is good that we are starting February on a positive note. We look forward to increased customer walk-ins on occasions like Saraswati Puja and Valentine’s Day, apart from the usual footfall during weekends,” said Quest mall vice-president Sajeev Mehra.
The return of the dining crowd will pave the way for around 80% of the pre-pandemic footfall, said Oudh 1590 and Chapter 2 co-founder Shiladitya Chaudhury. “By next weekend, we expect a normal crowd. But we will continue to stick to all Covid protocol,” said Chaudhury.
Park Street restaurants, too, rejoiced at the extension of closing time. Some are already gearing up to stay open late. “We have already instructed our staff that we will now be taking our last orders at 10.15pm. The deferred closure will help to bring in a bigger dining crowd,” said Nitin Kothari, owner of Mocambo and Peter Cat.
“After a dull first three weeks of January, dining at our outlets is already on the rise. The extra hour would further lead to a healthy crowd,” said Kabir Azhar, director of Aminia.