World News – CA – Collingwood Restaurant is not taking reservations from Red Zone residents

A Collingwood restaurant has announced that it will not accept guests from regions subject to red restrictions or bans.

The decision was easy for Linda Sloat, the owner of the Curly Willow. The restaurant, which is reserved for reservations only, will inform anyone who calls of the policy. If you are from an area in the province’s red exclusion zone or cordoned off area, you cannot currently come to the Curly Willow for dinner.

« You were asked not to travel, » Sloat told CollingwoodToday. « If you come here, you are basically breaking the law. If you don’t live here you shouldn’t come here. ”

She heard from a waiter in another restaurant of a table with people announcing that they were coming from Peel to Collingwood for lunch because everything in Peel was closed.

« It really works that for 99 percent of people and companies who adhere to protocols, for whatever reason, there will unfortunately be some who don’t, » the restaurant’s announcement said Facebook site. “Then and there we decided we had to do more. ”

The family business with 20 seats has been open for three and a half years. They are closed on weekends, and Sloat said most of the customers are locals and many are regulars, which makes it easier for them to apply their new rule. If someone calls and doesn’t recognize them, the Curly Willow staff will ask where they are from. If it is a region in the red zone or a lockdown, they will be notified of the policy.

« When we closed [in March] … the locals were there and kept us going. It wasn’t Toronto that kept us going, ”she said.

Sloat said she received about six calls from people in red zones in the past few days and found that they understood the guidelines. Once a normal dinner wanted to bring her son, who was visiting from Mississauga, Sloat told the customer that this couldn’t happen at the moment.

She also heard of at least three tables (eight guests) arriving at the Willow for the first time after learning of the new policy.

The restaurant received several comments on the original Sloat Facebook post to let customers know. Many have urged other companies in the community to implement the same policy.

« We didn’t do it for validation, » Sloat said. “I have friends, and especially servers, who are scared … they have to wear safety glasses to serve customers. They put their lives at risk so that people have the luxury of eating out. ”

She noticed that her husband has asthma and that the small restaurant has four employees in total.

« Employers need to protect their employees, » Sloat said. « We’re doing everything we’re supposed to do. There are all of these rules that we have to follow. However, they do not know if the people walking through the door are obeying the rules. ”

Simcoe County will put orange restrictions on Monday, while Peel and Toronto will be under lockdown as part of the provincial COVID-19 response framework. Cases were reported in Collingwood, Clearview and Wasaga Beach earlier this month, and Sloat acknowledged that restricting customers to locals or other residents of the green, yellow and orange zones is not a guarantee of keeping the coronavirus out.

« It’s not that easy, we could still have someone come here with COVID-19, » she said. « We’re doing everything we should as a joint venture to keep the spread low. « . ”

« You have been asked not to travel, » she said. « When you think protecting people is a negative thing . . . you are exactly the person we don’t want to come to. ”

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Collingwood, Coronavirus, The Curly Willow Eatery