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Berlin has at last opened its restaurants and cafes this Friday to droves of eager customers, marking a seminal moment in the easing of the city’s lockdown measures.
Restaurants were ordered to close previously with some adapting to provide takeaway offerings and others remaining completely shuttered.
Under the new guidelines, restaurants are allowed to open with reduced capacity and restaurant-goers are to remain 1.5 metres apart from their fellow diners. Restaurants must not serve buffets and have been encouraged to reduce contact as much as possible.
“Today we implemented everything that we were asked to. We maintain distance. We got rid of our ‘half-tables’ from inside, we introduced new digital menus in order to safeguard our customers from touching our menus. Instead, they have a QR code that they can scan with their phone without contact,” said Vijay Bans, owner of an Indian restaurant in Berlin.
The lack of precision in guidelines released by the state government has caused confusion for some, like Max Paarlberg, who was also not ready to revert back to his old layout after implementing a new takeaway concept.
“From my understanding, I understand that if you have tables you must do table service. So because of that, we don’t want to go right back to our old concept again because we’ve put so much effort and energy and time into these tortas and people love them. So, for now, we will continue with that,” said Paarlberg, whose restaurant has been daily selling out of its tortas, a Mexican grilled sandwich.
As foodservice emerges from its long hiatus, bars and clubs in the capital still remain closed, with little information about when drinking establishments will be allowed to operate.
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