Local area restaurants hopeful patrons return in full force during Phase 2

By Cole Parkinson
Taber Times
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

Under Alberta’s Phase 2 relaunch, restaurants in the area are now able to allow residents in to sit down and eat.

While Phase 1 only allowed 50 per cent capacity at restaurants located in Alberta, the announcement that Phase 2 would begin on June 12 saw all restrictions lifted.

As a way to promote local Taber restaurants, the Taber Times introduced Take out Thursdays as a way for those businesses to showcase any offers they have.

Due to the shutdown in March, many local restaurants were affected heavily with no sit down available.

“The pandemic and the restrictions imposed on small businesses as a result of the health and safety guidelines were a bit scary at first,” explained Chris Nguyen, owner of Com and Eat. “The uncertainty of whether we would be able to sustain operations under the new conditions posed the biggest challenge. Fortunately, our transition from full service to temporarily offering only take-out and delivery exclusively was seamless and once again, we received significant support from our patrons to be able to sustain operations throughout the initial phase.”

Like many other restaurants, Com and Eat also adapted to the times and found the support was still there from the Taber and area community.

Even though there were certainly challenges along the way, takeout and delivery allowed many restaurants to continue to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Local support is absolutely critical to the survival and success of independently owned and operated businesses within our community. Fortunately, we have been blessed with overwhelming support from our community since day one. We are grateful to be a part of Taber,” continued Nguyen.

While the restrictions have been lifted, the threat of the Coronavirus is still prevalent.

As that continues, Com and Eat and many other Taber restaurants are still offering the ability for takeout and delivery.

“We certainly appreciate that these are still uncertain times and appreciate that everyone will have different levels of comfort with regards to going out to public places,” added Nguyen. “The health, safety and well being of our customers remains our top priority so we have modified our dining room to allow for better social distancing, have increased our already careful hygiene and sanitation procedures for any customer contact areas as well as the rest of the restaurant and require our direct contact team members to wear barriers to protect our customers. For those who are still apprehensive about dining in, we of course still offer full take out and delivery options to best suit everyone’s needs.”

To keep up to date, see the Taber Times’ Take out Thursday page each week.