Restaurants like Mr. Mikes in Prince Albert are beginning to see customers come back in as they get used to vaccine mandates for dine-in. (File Photo/BOB Awards)

By Rob Mahon

Diners Returning to Restaurants

Local restaurants seeing slow return to normal post-vaccine mandate

Nov 3, 2021 | 4:00 PM

When the new rules surrounding vaccination came in, some restaurants did notice a drop in business at first as many customers suddenly weren’t allowed to dine in. That trend seems to be slowly reversing, however.

It’s been over a month now since the province mandated indoor diners be fully vaccinated, and in that time restaurants have slowly seen their business pick up after an initial drop. This may be because some people who at first hesitated to get the vaccine are now getting their shots.

“We are seeing a little more of an uptick in business, I think mostly to do with people who were resistant starting to get vaccinated,” said Brad Dupuis, owner and general manager of Lou’s Bar, Grill, and Offsale in Shellbrook.

Dupuis noticed the uptick on some of their special nights in the last couple of weeks. After two weeks to open the month were a little quieter, the restaurant began to get a little more populated. This may be not only because more people are vaccinated but because they know their fellow patrons are as well.

“Our wing nights on Wednesdays have been a heck of a lot better through the last two weeks than even in September,” said Dupuis, “which is a solid month for us. I think that’s definitely attributed to consumer confidence.”

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“We’re definitely not back to normal by any stretch of the imagination,” he added. “But it does seem like we are slowly coming back. But it definitely has a long way to go before we’re back to normal.”

This time of year is also a golden time for sports watchers, as early November and late October saw the NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA, and CFL all active at the same time. But Dupuis said he hadn’t had a huge uptick in sports traffic, and he wasn’t alone on that.

“We haven’t had as good of traffic come in,” said Darvinder Sing, general manager at Mr. Mikes. “It may be that people are afraid to come out, and with the vaccine passport maybe that’s the reason. So far we haven’t had many people in for sports yet.”

While the sports crowd hasn’t yet rushed back to the bars, however, regular diners are returning in slow but steady waves.

“It could be a possibility that people don’t have the vaccination and they don’t want to come in,” Singh said. “But we haven’t seen a major drop.”

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP