How Sudbury restaurants and bars are handling closures amid COVID-19

On what is usually one of the busiest nights of the year, The Nickel City bar in downtown Sudbury was closed Tuesday evening on St. Patrick's Day, as were bars throughout the province.  

After Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning, and ordered bars and restaurants to close, business owners are grappling with what it will mean for their businesses.

"I'm going to lose like thousands of dollars, you know. It doesn't matter what kind of promotions you run after that, June, July or August, you're not going to pick up that money," said Marty Martel, owner of The Nickel City. 

While Martel is worried about his bottom line, he said he understands the need for widespread closures, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I wasn't unhappy, because it's a safety precaution thing, it's all over the world, it's not like it's just in Sudbury," Martel said.

Take-out, delivery

While many establishments have completely shut their doors, some are continuing to operate, offering take-out and delivery, as is still permitted by the province. 

At the Townehouse Tavern, manager Ryan Desjardins said the bar already offered a take-out option for food, and menu items can also be ordered through the delivery service SkipTheDishes — and is continuing to do so for now.

Next door sister-restaurant The Laughing Buddha has shut its doors for now, but Desjardins said staff is working on getting it set up with SkipTheDishes as well. 

"We want to kind of keep as many people on as we can have work, but we are doing some temporary layoffs," Desjardins said. 

He said recent days have been "a bit chaotic to say the least," as management has tried to decide on the best courses of action. While he wants to keep employees working, he said he's focused on not doing anything that might work against social distancing efforts. 

Desjardins said online orders were down a bit at the start of the week, but he's hopeful more people may start to order food for delivery while they stay home. 

"I think in the next couple days hopefully we'll see whether or not those sales go up for down, and that will give us a more realistic expectation for the next couple weeks."

Few customers 

A few blocks away, the Cedar Nest Cafe is also offering take-out and delivery, but owner Suzette Peters said she's had hardly any customers. 

"It's actually been excruciatingly painful," Peters said. 

"We were already coming out of the slow time of year, which is natural, January, February. So this hit, you know it couldn't have hit us at a worse time."

Peters said both she and her employees are worried about how they'll make it through. She said she's taking things one day, and one hour at a time. With low sales, she's not sure if she'll continue to operate at all, while restrictions are in place.

"The pressure to put on you know an entire restaurant menu in hopes that maybe you get one or two calls, I don't know if it's going to be worth it," Peters said. 

"We want everyone to be safe, but it's really hard to watch your business potentially go down."

'Suffering along with out neighbours' 

While she worries about what the future may hold for her own business, Peters knows she's not alone.

"It's absolutely devastating globally, and you know we're just in a small corner of the world that's suffering along with our neighbours, and you know all just trying to survive," she said. 

She's waiting to hear more details about supports from the federal and provincial governments, and trying to remain optimistic. 

"I do look forward to one of the biggest parties the world has ever seen, once it's all through."