Ugly’s Pub and Grill is holding off on dine-in service for the time being.
The Alberta relaunch plan has allowed restaurants to open table service at 50 per cent capacity but Manager Taylor DeMott said they have decided to only open for take-out for the time being in order to protect their staff and customers.
“Our thoughts right now is that we would feel horrible if we were responsible for further spread,” she said.
Ugly’s is currently operating for takeout from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. with DeMott and her mother being the only employees working for the time being.
“At this time, we can’t hire a lot of staff back so it is just my mother and myself. Hopefully in the next two weeks, we can get some things in place in order to have dine-in with restrictions in place,” she said.
DeMott said she would like to see how other restaurants handle the reopening phase and doesn’t want to have to bring back staff that feel uncomfortable in a public setting during the pandemic. If they do open for dine-in, that is when they would need extra help.
“For myself, it would be a lot to handle all the guidelines by myself, so we would need to hire back and it is about finding people to come back,” she said.
Ugly’s continues to cook meals that are being donating out the back of their establishment for those in need and DeMott said she is itching to get back to serving the community like they have for over 20 years in Lacombe.
“I haven’t been to work for two months so it is weird and it is weird to be here with no customers. People love coming in here for beer and popcorn, so we have been sending out popcorn with every meal. People who have ordered so far are our regulars, so when they pick up it is nice to see them again,” she said.
DeMott said they have been following all public health guidelines during their soft reopening.
“We are wearing masks and we have sanitizer everywhere. We have medical-grade disinfectant and we are using that to wipe surfaces. We also don’t have a public bathroom and people come in one at a time,” she said.
She added, “We just really want to open back up. It is weird to be here without our entertainment, people playing pool and our customers. It is crazy what is going on but we are all going through it together.”
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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