Fast-food chains happy to welcome eat-in customers

Management of popular fast-food restaurants in Barbados have given the Government’s decision to once again allow in-house dining at their establishments the thumbs up.

Both General Manager of Burger King Barbados Ryan Walters and Managing Director of Chefette Restaurants Ryan Haloute have welcomed Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill’s announcement during a press conference last weekend that in-house dining at restaurants will resume when the new COVID-19 Emergency Management Directive comes into effect on Tuesday, February 1.

Some fast food restaurant owners have suggested that the change will allow them to hire additional persons who will be needed to clean and sanitize dining areas.

In a statement issued to Barbados TODAY, Haloute said the Chefette family is extremely pleased to resume indoor dining at all 15 locations from Tuesday. He said the restaurant will ensure that all safety protocols are adhered to for the safety of employees, customers and suppliers.

Meanwhile, Walters said while a written request to Government to give the green light for in-house dining at fast food restaurants was denied late last year, Burger King is happy to be able to return to a level of normalcy.

He was particularly pleased about being able to expand the staff complement to ensure the maintenance of the dining space.

“Overall it is good for customers. It is good for business. It is good for our employees as well. This is well over nine months, it has been a very long time. We are happy about it and we will make sure that we follow the protocols and make sure that our customers and staff are in as safe an environment as can be. We already follow international protocols from the brand where we have higher or greater levels of sanitization and cleaning, monitoring of staff etc.

“That has been in place for almost two years now and that will continue. But we will follow whatever guidelines local authorities would want us to, to deal with our customers in terms of thermometers, hand sanitizing and in terms of cleanliness of the actual environment where persons are touching. We will be following those protocols and increase them where there is need to,” Walters said.

The new health minister disclosed that in-house restaurant dining would be the only change to the directive which is expected to last for a period of two weeks. (AH)