(Files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
The President of the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association (BCRFA) said 99.9% of residents dining out have been understanding about the current operating conditions establishments are dealing with.
Ian Tostenson talked about an unfortunate incident that made his head spin.
“We saw a situation in the Shuswap where someone became impatient in an Asian restaurant, that was horrible and the guy that pulled that one off should be ashamed of himself and I hope he never steps foot in a restaurant in British Columbia again.”
“It got even worse than that, it became racist just because his order was delayed. We’ll see that because there are some social distancing in kitchens, which will cause delays but we just have to expect this.”
Tostenson added some people may still be struggling to understand the type of conditions restaurants are having to work under.
“The protocol is that the restaurant needs to take you to your table, your table can have no more than six people and then that table will be six feet away from the next table and no table hopping, which means you can wave to your best friend from across the room but you can’t come over, so you can see what they are trying to do is limit the contact with people who aren’t part of your pod or group.”
“What we’re finding is that people are embracing the protocols we have but then there are people like the guy in the Shuswap who have the whole dominance thing where they can just go into a business and they are there to serve them and be like the guy in the Shuswap who had no regard and was just dominating the situation.”
In addition, the BCRFA head stated all employees at restaurants are doing the best they can.
“Staff is maybe first-time jobbers and irrespective of that, they don’t need to be getting that kind of abuse from people who are woefully ignorant about swanning to comply with what we have to do right now.”
“I will say that the restaurants have done a great job of providing a safe and fun environment and we just have to get rid of these fringe elements.”
Tostenson expects these conditions to be in place for at least a year until the pandemic improves.