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Downtown Cornwall restaurants hope opening-weekend crowds continue

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Some restaurants along Pitt Street in Cornwall have seen a flurry of activity since reopening their patios to patrons on Friday.

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Although some restaurants had wait times of over an hour, others outside of the downtown Pitt Street corridor had empty patios Saturday afternoon.

“We worked outside and we thought we’d come to a patio to enjoy the nice weather with our family, and it’s been a while, it’s been a long time coming,” said Lise Lalonde, who was dining with her family at Schnitzels European Flavours.

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Lalonde was just one of many families that waited their turn to be seated on an extended patio, courtesy of the city. Schnitzels’ owner, Hassan Rafiei, said he was glad to finally see smiling faces in his restaurant again.

“It’s been nice and steady… Yesterday was crazy, we had almost a two-hour waitlist going on… It was awesome to see all the bodies downtown again, it felt almost like normal times. There was an atmosphere that was missing downtown, and it’s back again,” said Rafiei.

Rafiei had started in the restaurant kitchen himself, and worked his way up to eventually owning it. For him, closing the spot was not an option, and retaining staff members was a priority. Rafiei said he increased his staff’s salaries by three or four dollars per hour just to keep them around. Others have said finding staff has been difficult.

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“We have a hard time finding good staff, and if we do, they tend to move to other cities, they’re here for a bit and then they move on… But I love it here,” said Jennifer McLennan, who has worked at the restaurant since 2014.

The restaurant updated its menu to decrease the time people are waiting for food on its 42-person patio. The restaurant had been undergoing changes to its sale system when the province announced that patios would reopen, and although it took some time to adjust to the new technology, Rafiei said people seemed more understanding.

“We were having some hiccups on our first day, and everyone was saying ‘don’t worry, we’re enjoying it.’ They said they’ve been locked up and just want to enjoy this. Back in the day, people would get angry right away, they’re laid back and happy,” said Rafiei.

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Rafiei said he hopes the city will take steps to make sure the demand for his business stays.

“I applied for a weekend shutdown as a trial, for July 1 to July 4, from Second Street, all the way down to Water Street, almost as a food fest kind of thing, but it’s also for all the businesses… Fingers are crossed because a lot of people want it,” said Rafiei.

Others also support the closure, including Mexicali Rosa’s owner Yogi Patel, who had an influx of reservation requests for his backdoor patio area. Mexicali Rosa’s also had its patio extended.

“I support the idea, especially for weekends. Customers can park their car and walk up the street and see what we have in downtown,” said Patel.

Patel said finding more staff for the busy summer season was also a challenge. Mike Baird, the co-owner of Esca Gourmet Pizza and Bar, said the opening was badly needed.

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“We’ve been trying to stay positive, and prepare for the reopening. It’s been very frustrating, COVID in general, but also not being allowed to open our patios maybe when we should have been allowed to, I think all restauranteurs would agree with that, but we are very, very thankful we can do it now,” said Baird.

It was just about a year ago that Ontario allowed restaurant patios to reopen after the first lockdown. Subsequent lockdowns at the end of December and beginning of April meant restaurants, along with many non-essential businesses, were pushed back into takeout/curbside pickup as the only options to keep operating.

jhaworth@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JordanTHaworth

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