Restaurants open Monday to eager customers

By Medicine Hat News on February 9, 2021.

With restaurants once more allowed to serve food to dine-in customers there was an air of celebration for many in Medicine Hat on Monday.

“By yesterday I was already ecstatic,” said Katherine Raneses, owner of Humpty’s Family Restaurant.

After two months of take-out service only at Station Cafe on Second Street SE downtown, regulars were back bright and early.

“A bit of a homecoming for them,” said Jake Knodel co-owner. “There’s an energy created when people are sitting in a coffee shop.”

There are still some restrictions in place, such as only people from the same household allowed to dine together and to a maximum of six people. The other exception is the two people that someone who lives alone is allowed to have contact with.

“We are still walking with a limp but at least we’re walking,” said Knodel.

Raneses says it felt as though they were celebrating “Christmas in February,” because so many regular customers had returned.

Dorothy Kurpjuweit and her daughter Christine were enjoying breakfast at Humpty’s on Monday.

Dorothy says she felt excited when she pulled up in the parking lot and noticed the other vehicles.

“I’m excited for Katherine, too. I have been concerned about her business,” said Dorothy.

Knodel says the challenge for a business owner is not even being able to plan for two weeks ahead with certainty due to COVID-19.

The community has been supportive, though. Customers have come for food and drinks to take away and that has meant nobody has had to be laid off. They all have reduced working hours but they have jobs, said Knodel.

In a quiet corner at Station Cafe sat Victoria Young with a range of books and a laptop on the table next to her drink and an empty plate.

Young says it has been her favourite place to come a couple of times a week. It gets her out of the house and she enjoys studying there.

“It’s exciting,” she said about the first day back at her favourite coffee shop.

Also on Monday the province lifted other restrictions, such as school-related and limited indoor and outdoor children’s sport and performance activities, and one-on-one indoor personal fitness with a trainer.

One-on-one individual and one-on-one household training is now permitted for indoor fitness activities in dance studios, training for figure skating on ice with one-on-one lessons.

“People in one-on-one sessions cannot interact with others and there must be a minimum of three metres between sessions in the same facility,” states an Alberta Health press release. “Trainers must be professional, certified or paid trainers who are providing active instruction and correction. Passive supervision of a physical activity is not considered training.

Sessions have to be scheduled or by appointment.

Restaurants, cafés and pubs that reopen for dine-in services must collect contact information of one person from each group.

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