Our colleagues from RTL 5minutes visited a number of restaurants to get feedback on the grand reopening from insiders of the Luxembourgish gastronomy.
Gabriel Boisante, who runs several establishments in Luxembourg City, including Paname, Bazaar, Urban, Mamacita, Coppers, and Amore, felt that people still shied away from inside dining and mostly preferred to stay on the terraces. Nevertheless, the number of inside table bookings is "increasing by the day", the businessman noted.
Unfortunately, the enforced closure by 10.00 p.m. only allows for one service per table per night, Boisante further explained: "People will not start dining at half past five only to do us restaurateurs a favour." Additionally, the still elevated number of people working from home, paired with bad weather, has rendered the reopening a slow process. "Still, I'm the glass-half-full type, so I am happy that we can finally move towards normality."
La Villa de Camille et Julien, a restaurant in Pulvermühl, reopened on Tuesday. The owners reported few customers during this initial phase, which may be due to the fact that their business is still relatively young. The only took over the restaurant in June 2020 after the first lockdown: "We still have a reputation to build."
In Kirchberg, restaurants also felt the hesitancy of people towards rapid tests. While they are still free for as long as the stock provided by the government is filled, they will soon have to charge clients for rapid tests, another discouraging measure.
Restaurant owner Camille Tardif explained how they try to make the process as comfortable as possible, reserving a separate room for clients to take the rapid tests. When it comes to negative PCR tests from clients, there is no real way of checking their validity, Tardif further highlighted.
Others do not have the luxury of reserving separate spaces for the purpose of testing. Boisante explained how their clients conduct them at the table, given that they "cannot let 40 people stand around on the sidewalk". Once a negative test result shows, clients may order.
Businesses have so far been spared from positive cases, but the question of how do handle the situation is still open. Some have already prepared their teams for the eventuality.
In the end, the first weekend since the reopening was rather quiet, Boisante noted: "Understandable, considering that many people were still likely to leave the country for the long weekend."
