Our priorities haven’t changed with over a year into Covid-19 (all equally important): 1) good quality food 2) high quality service and 3) impeccable sanitization & safety practices.

We’re excited to start serving tables again – we’re getting our ducks lined up to make it happen as soon as the Provincial government gives us the go-ahead! Part of this preparation, is to make sure we continue with our 3 main goals.

Besides maintaining our current safety measures and polices for keeping everyone safe while serving takeout, we’ve been monitoring the situation with the virus and took this downtime to update our Covid Safety Plan (which anyone is welcome to read upon request).

Please refer to Coco’s Safety Measures for Table Service for some of the increased levels of sanitization protocols we’ve been practicing when we were open for dine-in before this latest lockdown. We will be continuing with these when we reopen for table service. (This post also has links to other safety measures we’re taking with Takeout & Delivery, Our House Rules and Mask Mandate policy).

Here are some of the top level changes we’re enacting due to new information and refinement of our plan:

Increased Covid Safety Plans

1. Installing spit guards on our patio railings to separate patio diners from pedestrians passing by on the sidewalk.
2. Our staff are all equipped with PPE. Since we cannot maintain physical distancing in our occupation, we all wear surgical masks (or freshly laundered cloth masks with extras on hand to switch up when they become soiled or wet) as well as goggles or a visor for eye protection.
3. Our passive screening methods have become a tad more formal. When guests arrive and sign the Guest Log Book (for contact tracing purposes), we ask that they also sign with the understanding they have no reason to believe they contacted Covid or any of it’s variants. The staff now have a sign-off sheet to assure us they self-monitored before entering the building; contractors and delivery people have their own signoff sheets.
4. High Touch surfaces & tools of the restaurant were reevaluated and additions made to the Sanitization Schedules for the Front-of-House main list as well as for the Back-of-House.
5. Based on the emotional element of this pandemic, we added Violence Prevention Measures and Mental Health Awareness sections to help staff deal with pressures of being essential workers.
6. A hands-free thermometer has been included to our list for enhanced potential screening measures if the need calls for it (different scenarios are discussed with acceptable responses) and are covered in our latest staff mini-manual.
7. A Reserve Only or Call Ahead restaurant model (with Takeout with Pickup & Delivery) is what’s been working for us and our guests during the pandemic. We will continue to urge guests to pre-arrange their visit to our restaurant with time for us to make certain we are properly staffed to accommodate safe dining inside & on the patio.
8. Contactless dining options, including a mobile debit machine that doubles as a portable POS, as well as online ordering & payment systems are close to being realized. Ideally, guests will use their phones to access the online menu, order & pay for themselves so we can reduce the amount of FOH staff & allow more time to disinfect & improve service.
9. Further reducing # of interactions between staff and guests – please don’t be offended if we buss your table after you leave or if we bring you the takeout container to fill yourselves.
10. Providing clear guidelines to staff in what to do and what we must do as employers should staff or guests suddenly start experiencing symptoms while in our restaurant. We have protocols to phone 911 if symptoms are severe, a plan in how to isolate said symptomatic person and provide them guidance in their next steps. We also have a clear plan in who to contact and what they will do on their end to inform others of the potential exposure.

We hope with this latest communication you can feel assured that we as a restaurant & Renfrewites, are taking every precaution we can during this pandemic.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns with visiting us during these insane times.

Regardless, we will continue to tirelessly (ok, we’re a bit tired but that won’t stop us!) keep informed with the latest news and developments with this situation and how it affects us safely serving you and our community.