GUELPH -- In order to slow the spread of COVID-19, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Tuesday morning that all night clubs, bars and restaurants would close their dining rooms, limiting the establishments to takeout service only.
It’s left local businesses to make the call for how to proceed on their own.
Take the Beertown location in that city: it opened about a week ago, but now, it's closed indefinitely.
The Charcoal Group of Restaurants, which owns and operates the restaurant, decided Monday that they would close all of their restaurants. Beertown won't be serving takeout, either.
Management says this is because they're putting the health and safety of their employees first.
"We were incredibly busy and it was just such a mixed set of emotions to look out and feel like maybe we're part of the problem and not a part of the solution," says Charcoal Group CEO Jody Palubiski.
"So what should have been a very positive reassuring, 'yes!' kind of time for everybody involved because what we were doing was obviously coming out of the gate in a very successful fashion, it just didn't feel right."
He says the decision to close was very difficult for everybody involved.
"It's just the right thing to do," he says.
They're sending all employees home with the perishable food they have on hand.
The president of the Uptown Waterloo BIA says its members are trying to continue working in whatever ways they can.
Some restaurants have decided to stay open and serve takeout through the normal partitions that many of them have.
Others have decided that they'll do curbside takeout only: if you call ahead, they'll bring it out to you.
