Restaurants and bars in Maharashtra have something to cheer! Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today gave an assurance to the hospitality industry that the state government will allow the opening of restaurants and bars tentatively in the first week of October.
The decision came in a meeting between the Chief Minister and industry leaders. While this is only assurance and the final nod on paper is yet to come, it is definitely a move in the direction to support the hospitality industry, which has taken a massive hit owing to the pandemic.
"The past six months have been extremely tough for the hospitality industry. As a collective, we have rallied together and lobbied hard with the government for relief and today, we're given an assurance that the state government will allow the opening up of restaurants for dine-in and bar operations in the first week of October. They are also taking great care to ensure that once we open up, there won't be any start-and-stop of operations which can be very difficult for business,” informs Riyaaz Amlani, CEO & MD of Impresario Handmade Restaurants and the man behind SOCIAL.
But, what are the changes that the restaurants would have to make to ensure safety and social distancing? "The government has requested the restaurants to not put any uncooked or raw items on their menus. To promote social distancing within the kitchens, menus will need to shrink. We've reduced our menus by about 30% to accommodate this. An all-day menu is important as people will be opting for freshly made food rather than cold foods like salads,” adds Amlani whose restaurants are already operational in cities like Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Chandigarh.
Hotel & Restaurant Association of Western India also tweeted a thank you note from their official Twitter account. “HRAWI thanks CM of Maharashtra for assuring the reopening of restaurants in the first week of October,” reads the tweet.
What do you think about this decision? Are you excited to go out and have a meal with your friends or family or would you stick to ordering in food? Tell us in the comments.