MADURAI: Even after reopening, the restrictions in place continue to deliver a one-two punch to the restaurateurs in the city as low customer footfall and the 8 pm curfew prolong their road to recovery. With business from 8 pm to 10 pm accounting for 20 to 30 per cent of their everyday profits, the restaurateurs are demanding that the state government extend the curfew till 10 pm.
After over two-months of lockdown, several restaurants in the city resumed dine-in services on Monday. Three hundred of the nearly 500 eateries and restaurants in the city are registered under the Madurai District Hoteliers Association. "Fearing the spread of Covid-19," said the association's president K L Kumar, "Only 60 per cent of the registered restaurants resumed services on Monday. To be on a safer side, besides screening for symptoms, we collect the contact details of every customer." The 8 pm curfew would lead to further losses, he claimed, by saying that "many in the district have their dinner only after 8 pm."
Another member of the association, running a non-vegetarian restaurant, said that many such restaurants in the city offer only lunch and dinner services. "Before lockdown, we served lunch between 12 pm and 4.30 pm, and dinner between 6.30 pm and 11 pm. With the curfew, we will hardly have time to prepare dinner, as we have to begin the service at 5 pm," he added.
The city restaurants are serving 50 per cent of their customer capacity for dine-in services, with workforce halved. On day one of reopening, several restaurants registered only around 25 per cent of their average customer turnout. If the curfew is extended till 10 pm, the restaurateurs are hoping, they will, in the next six months, overcome the losses incurred during the lockdown. The takeaway service, permitted during the lockdown, accounted for only 15 per cent of their regular profit, they added.