Carey's Bar and Grill Patio (Kate Otterbein/XFM News)
Londoners are thrilled that patios have been opened back up again and business is booming. At Carey’s Bar and Grill, they have been serving a lot of customers.
“It’s incredible. Just the environment of being back in action and having the staff come back. It was a long time coming. Everybody was really supportive and really happy to actually come in and see us and we’re really happy to see everybody back as well,” says Tim Cording, owner of Carey’s.
Cording made the difficult decision to not stay open for takeout during the lockdown.
“Because of our market and Fanshawe College and residence being empty, we decided to just close. So we laid off all of our staff and then brought everyone back through each phase. When we went into complete lockdown, we laid everybody off again. It was extremely unfortunate and it was really, really hard on myself, my wife, and our business. Because our customers and staff are so important to us,” Cording says.
Carey’s is known as ‘Fanshawe’s Bar’ and it’s a popular hangout spot for students wanting to grab some food or a drink.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first started in 2020, there were a lot of changes that had to be made.
“We had to transition and figure out how do we pivot to reinvent our business throughout this whole model? And it’s been a struggle. We did the best we could. When the students aren’t around, our business dramatically drops. We’ve just had to work extremely hard at tightening up our shifts, having less staff working, and doing the best with what we can,” Cording says.
Cording is so happy that patio dining is allowed once again, but is hopeful that soon indoor dining will be allowed too.
Comments