THUNDER BAY – Tony Hockenhull has been cooking up a way to reopen the iconic Prospector Steak House since the pandemic landed in Thunder Bay.
At the same time the restaurant’s second-generation manager has been crossing his fingers that his business won’t be one of the more than 60 per cent of Canadian eateries that could close because of the COVID-19 impact, according to the Canadian Survey of Business Conditions, produced by Statistics Canada.
According to the study, 29 per cent of businesses in the accommodation and food-service industry cannot operate with social distancing measures in place.
A further 31 per cent said they can only operate up to 90 days with the restrictions limiting the number of customers they can serve.
Based on those numbers, in three months, as many as 60 per cent of the country’s restaurants could be out of business.
It’s a scary prospect, Hockenhull said on Thursday, his staff busy preparing for the grand reopening.
“Everybody kind of took a big hit together as an industry,” he said.
“There were programs available and we were able to take advantage of some of them. That in itself was a hit. Well, there’s another hit when you get back and you’re at 30 per cent capacity. You kind of have to relearn everything, re-jig everything, renew everything. Things have to be different and viable to be open in the long term.
The big question, is how long the 30 per cent capacity cap going to last?
That’s the answer all restaurateurs are asking – though some have been able to make up for it with outdoor patios to increase the number of seats they can serve, a luxury the Prospector doesn’t have because of its downtown north core location.
“Is it going to be another three months? Is it going to be a year? Is it going to be a year-and-a-half? How long is that going to take? It’s a question mark. And you’re not able to tell anything to your staff. We’ve only brought back about 30 per cent of our staff as well,” Hockenhull said.
Diners will have to make do with the new normal when eating out – in the Prospector’s case, it means no salad bar – though Hockenhull promised customers will still get all the buns and salad they can eat, they’ll just be served family style. The goal is to bring the salad bar back when public health officials say it’s OK to do.
Charla Robinson, president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce, said it’s a refrain the entire industry is hearing. There’s just too much uncertainty in the industry, many of whom have enjoyed a somewhat bountiful patio season.
But with winter right around the corner and a possible second wave of COVID-19 in the mix, answers aren’t readily available.
“I think that’s where that real concern around 60 per cent of businesses is,” Robinson said. “If both of those things happen, if we get bad weather and people can’t use patios and if we have to switch back basically to take-out only, I think that’s where the worst-case scenario lies.
“But what I’m hearing locally, based on the assumptions we’re at now with reduced capacity in restaurants and knowing patios will probably only be good for another four to six weeks, there’s definitely concern. But there’s still some optimism.”
Hockenhull said restaurants may have to reinvent themselves slightly to survive. As such he plans to open a brew pub in a portion of the Prospector, to appeal to a younger crowd.
