CHENNAI: Standalone restaurants and bars in the city and its suburbs, which lost about 35% of footfalls when the night curfew and Sunday lockdown were in force, are expected to see improved business as restrictions have been lifted.
Pubs wooing customers with ‘happy hour’ deals, offering free alcoholic beverages during the day, have withdrawn them as more customers are expected to troop in.
The restrictions over the past fortnight were the third blow for the hospitality sector that had suffered permanent closure of about 1,500 restaurants of different seating capacities due to poor patronage, maintenance and rent since March 2020.
At night, when most restaurants record about 40% of their total business, only a fraction walked in tor dine during the past fortnight. Empty seats in eateries did not translate into online orders that continued to be in the range of 20%, according to the restaurateurs association. Standalone restaurants, pubs and bars were allow only 50% of their total seating capacity as per the standard operating procedure (SOP).
R Rajkumar, proprietor of an eatery at Kolathur, said seats were vacant when there should have been a surge in footfalls after 7pm. The menu was also trimmed thanks to poor patronage. “Sales decreased substantially,” said Rajkumar, who has shut two branches at Parry’s and Perambur post Covid-19.
About 8,500 eateries and restaurants had been operating within a radius of 30km in Chennai, while the core city has 174 standalone bars, pubs, resto-bars, and bars attached to hotels. M Ravi, president of The Chennai Hotels Association, said anywhere between 40% and 45% of customers did not turn up since fresh curbs came into effect this month. “We cut down on our purchase on vegetables and other ingredients by 30%,” he added.
Arasu Dennis, director of AD Associates that is a bar and restaurant consultant in Chennai, said business and footfalls took a heavy toll from 30%-50%. “In a bid to woo customers, pubs and standalone bars had begun offering ‘buy one get one free’ and ‘buy two and get one free’ on alcoholic drinks and brunches on Saturday in the past three weeks. We have withdrawn ‘happy hour’ deals as people have started visiting the facilities again,” he said.
