'There doesn’t seem to be a real date': Newmarket restaurants eagerly await patio reopening

The latest provincial reopening plan hasn't exactly removed the pervasive uncertainty around timelines for Newmarket restaurant owners and their customers who have eagerly been awaiting the return of outdoor patio dining.

“I don’t believe they’ve been clear enough as in timelines and such,” said Pam Lewis, co-owner of The Maid’s Cottage on Main Street. “There doesn’t seem to be a real date, it just seems to change every time.”

Outdoor dining with four people per table is part of step one of the provincial government’s three-step roadmap, with the caveat that at least 60 per cent of Ontarians need to receive one dose of the vaccine for that to happen. 

Cachet Supper Club owner Jennifer McLachlan said while she is disappointed about the continued delay in reopening, safety is the number 1 priority right now.

“We can’t change it, it's for the best of our safety. I think just having unmasked consumers in a condensed space without it being OK from a public health perspective would be counterproductive to everything we’ve just gone through,” she said.

The Fairy Lake restaurant has begun setting up its patios and scheduling staff. 

“Everybody’s sitting in a schedule that’s complete, everybody has set shifts and everybody knows that they’re returning to work,” she said. “That’s about 27 people that I have sitting on the bench waiting to come back.” 

The Maid’s Cottage doesn’t have a large patio space, however, it has done well with takeout, Lewis said. It's a different story for many of her restaurateur neighbours.

“Joia and Ground Burger Bar and Hungry Brew Hops, it’s huge for them, of course,” Lewis said. “For me, it might not impact us much but for them, it would immensely.”

Acknowledging the lack of a firm date, Newmarket-Aurora MPP and Health Minister Christine Elliot said tthe province is on track to have 65 per cent of people vaccinated by the end of May, which would mean moving to step one opening on June 14. 

“We are trying to give approximate dates so that we can give people a level of certainty to the extent that we can,” she said in a news conference May 20. “But because there are a wide variety of metrics involved in addition to the vaccination rates, it is possible that we could reach the level of getting to stage one before June 14, but we’re just giving that as an approximate date right now.” 

For McLachlan, the reopening of patio dining isn't only about her business, but also the community. 

“Seeing people get out and being able to socialize to a safe degree is going to really make us feel really good,” she said. 

The staff at Cachet is like a family, she added and she said she is looking forward to them all being together again.

“The sooner we can get more people vaccinated, the sooner we’re going to see things like case rates go down hospitalizations go down, intensive care units not be as full as they are so we want everyone to please work with us, get vaccinated, please work with your families and friends and convince them to get vaccinated too, because that’s going to make all the difference to us having a much more open summer that we can all enjoy,” Elliott said.