Why hello Auckland, is that a bar you have open?
It’s midnight in downtown Auckland and at least one bar is pumping. Danny Doolans opened to punters at 12:01am this morning, including a live band and several beer-smiley customers.
As we write this, we can see the town filling up with outside diners enjoying the alfresco-friendly conditions. At Auckland’s red setting, dining will have reduced numbers, social distancing between tables, and set dining times.
RNZ reported Soul Bar and Bistro’s commercial and events manager Olivia Carter saying the business has been preparing for days.
“It’s a mixture of being excited, of being nervous and have that real sense of butterflies in my stomach almost but I can’t wait,” she said.
They dusted off the tables a few weeks ago for staff to start preparing.
“We’re delivering the summer menu so our staff have come in and we’ve gone through how the dishes are prepared, we’ve tasted them all, we’ve had some wine tasting also some cocktail tasting with new cocktails added to the menu.”
It will open at 11am and have four seatings of 100 diners with set start and finish times.
“It is only 100 people, once you stand up you need to put your mask on, it’s still distanced, and lots of restaurants will have timing restrictions in play to try and maximise these last few lost months.”
But Carter said that was still a third of the number of customers through the door in normal times and turning a profit under Covid red is questionable.
She said restaurants needed to book every table and no-shows were a no-no.
For clubs and bars the situation is not as rosy.
The Family Bar and Club is one of six bars under its umbrella in Auckland, including at the Viaduct.
Operations manager Grady Elliott said the bars will open, but not its nightclub – where social distancing is hard to police.
“Sixty percent of our turnover is still under lock and key and is going to be in that orange light situation so we’re still stuffed and plans for New Year’s Eve, well, we don’t even know if we’ll be doing New Years Eve at the moment it’s all a bit up in limbo.”
Over at Granny Herald Britomart bistro Ortolana duty manager Ella Xue said she was ecstatic to be back in business this morning.
“I’m actually very excited. Last night I was hoping today was going to be a smash day.”
About 30 people had been through by 8am, all with their vaccine passes.
All customers’ passes were scanned upon entry and no one had expressed any frustration with the process so far, she said.
Regular customers Isabelle, Alan and Steve said it was fantastic to be back to their usual spot.
“We’ll definitely come here and help the business. We feel for the cafe,” Alan said.
Meanwhile, the Restaurant Association said that the Ministry of Health emailed a temporary exemption for those waiting to receive their My Vaccine Pass. The temporary exemption is a record of the individual’s request for assistance and has a unique identifier. It can be shown to businesses and organisations that require a My Vaccine Pass. It is valid until 11.59pm on 14 December 2021.
More than 95% of people who requested a My Vaccine Pass have received their pass and are ready for New Zealand to move to the traffic light system on Friday.
However there are currently around 70,000 requests for assistance, including people who need to add international vaccinations to their New Zealand record; people who need their name changed; and people whose records have other errors that need to be corrected.
The fastest and easiest way to get your My Vaccine Pass is via mycovidrecord.health.nz. People can also obtain assistance in getting their My Vaccine Pass from participating pharmacies, general practices, hauora, and DHB vaccination clinics. It is recommended people call ahead or check healthpoint.co.nz or the individual organisation’s website.
