A large "Open" sign is seen on a window as people sit inside a restaurant in Vancouver, on May 31, 2020.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
The owners of Vancouver’s award-winning Como Taperia are optimistic that their application for an expedited patio permit – one of 32 that were denied last week – will soon be approved.
But as the operators of several restaurants and craft breweries have discovered, the city’s Temporary Expedited Patio Program, which was intended to help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, is still being bogged down by bureaucratic inflexibility and poor communication. Only 14 of the 46 applications were approved.
The lack of promised fast tracking couldn’t come at a worse time. Two weeks after being allowed to reopen for dine-in business at 50-per-cent capacity, many restaurant owners are reporting underwhelming customer turnouts, skyrocketing food costs and a work force that is reluctant to return.
“Everything hinges on this patio,” says Shaun Layton, one of Como’s three owners, who spent $3,000 on new patio furniture after receiving provincial approval for a temporary sidewalk liquor extension on May 28.
“It was super easy,” says Mr. Layton, who has actually been fighting for a patio permit for two years, long before his award-winning tapas restaurant even opened.
So he and his two business partners went ahead and started rehiring staff, restocking their fridges, opening the kitchen air vents and firing up the stoves – a procedure that costs at least $20,000 and cannot be recouped with only 19 indoor seats.
Ten days later, they received a letter from the City of Vancouver, reminding them that they were also required to apply for a patio permit with Engineering and Development Services.
“We didn’t realize there was another application,” Mr. Layton says. “And the city’s guidelines are nuts. It’s so complicated. I thought they were trying to give out patios to anyone who wanted one.”
On Friday, at 4:30 p.m., just as their temporary in-store market was gearing up for a busy weekend, they received a call from someone in the city’s engineering department.
“He told us it was ‘complicated’ and he ‘didn’t have time to get into it,’ and that they ‘might’ get to our file in a few days – or a few weeks. He was just so smug and everything is so unclear and we can’t reopen with this uncertainty.”
As it turns out, Como Taperia’s situation is quite complicated. Although the Main Street sidewalk the owners hope to use is located on private property and they have full support from their landlord and strata council, it’s also a statutory right of way that might be used for a bus stop in the future or a walkway if and when a long-term proposal for a park across the road ever comes to fruition.
“At least now we know why the patio has been denied for two years,” says Mr. Layton, who had an encouraging phone call with Councillor Michael Wiebe on Sunday morning.
Mr. Wiebe, whose own restaurant, eight ½, was one of the fortunate 14 to receive a temporary patio permit last week, says most of the applications that were denied were on private property or required changes to zoning.
But others were denied for less logical reasons – being in a parking spot that contains a water main, for instance, which would actually be easier to access from underneath a temporary table than a parked car.
These are long-seated problems, he says.
“The process is being bogged down by old bylaws that have never been updated. Supporting small business has never been a priority for this city and this council needs to change that.”
In the meantime, more discretion and an ability to waive the rules is needed, he says.
Neil Wyles, the executive director of the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association, says the city deserves credit for moving quickly. “This isn’t a forever no to the people who have been denied a temporary patio. It’s a reworking and a rejigging.”
Time is of the essence for Vancouver restaurateurs who say business is not bouncing back as fast as they had hoped and is particularly slow downtown where most offices remain closed and the streets are no longer filled with tourists.
“Our lunch clientele is almost non-existent,” says Chambar owner Karri Green-Schuermans, who hopes better weather and a gentle nudge from British Columbia’s chief medical officer will give people the confidence to dine out again.
Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said downtown businesses are suffering, but suburban restaurants are faring better.
“Some of our suburban restaurant members are doing 70 to 75 per cent of last year’s sales volumes. That’s not bad. People are working at home, in suburbia, and that’s where they’re going out.”
Other restaurateurs have noticed a distinct demographic divide, with eateries that attract younger customers doing better than those that skew older. “Lucky Taco and Bells and Whistles have seen a quicker return from guests,” Gooseneck Hospitality owner James Iranzad says.
He says his Bufala restaurants in Kerrisdale and Edgemont Village “have been a bit slower, but are definitely picking up with on-premise dining this week, while also maintaining high takeout sales. I feel we are fortunate. The downtown restaurants are struggling.”
Weekends are better than weekdays, says a “cautiously optimistic” Mark von Schellwitz, western vice-president of Restaurants Canada. “And outdoor dining is certainly busier than indoors.”
But even some restaurants in residential districts with large patios and loyal clientele are slower than anticipated.
“People aren’t ready,” says Mike Jeffs, adding that the numbers at his three newly reopened Nook restaurants in Kitsilano, Olympic Village and North Vancouver’s Shipyards District have been steady, but not overwhelming.
“I thought everyone was itching to get out, but that’s not been the case at all.”