2021: Restaurants gear up for an unusual New Year's Eve
Recently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that all the celebrations in the city on December 31, 2020, will be allowed only till 11.30pm. This decision by the civic body, has received mixed responses and has been a talk of the town ever since its announcement. New Year’s Eve, in a normal scenario, is all about celebration and partying with friends, family and relatives. However, this year, the hospitality industry will not be able to host its customers post 11.30pm. This also takes a toll on their business especially in such grim times.
“I think this rule does not work well with restaurants and bars that are already following the Covid-19 guidelines and operating at 40% capacity. We, as an industry, have already taken a hit from March to October when operations were shut, and were hoping to recover in December,” says Pawan Shahri, managing partner at Butterfly High, The Bigg Small Café + Bar, Oi Kitchen and Bar, and London Taxi.
Though the decision seems “harsh”, some are understanding why the civic body took such a huge step. “The decision to restrict movements after 11.30 is harsh, but at the same time it is necessary to curb the spread of the virus. Majority of the crowd would venture out which would lead to a sudden spike in the number of cases, which had to be controlled one way or another,” says Ronak Rochlani, owner, Keiba, Label, and Ronak Rochlani Events.
For some, even though this comes in their way of recovery, customer safety is still at the forefront. “I am sure the government has thought this through before making a decision like this, and although this comes in the way of our recovery as all operation were shut from March to October and we were hoping to recover our loses in the month of December, we have always put customer safety first and we stand by it. Hence, we are happy to adhere to what the regulations say, and we want everyone to be safe,” shares Hitesh Keswani, owner, Silver Beach Hospitality.
