Eateries Frustrated By Extended Curbs, Late Notice Of Move

Restaurateurs have greeted the extension of Covid-19 rules restricting dining in to two persons until Nov 21 with frustration and resignation.

- Wong Ah Yoke

In a Zoom meeting with The Straits Times yesterday, about 20 members of the savefnbsg chat group spoke about how they felt the food and beverage (F&B) industry has been treated unfairly, and that the logic behind the rules has not been communicated clearly to them.

The chat group is a ground-up movement of more than 500 restaurants that came together during the circuit breaker last year to support one another.

One of the members, Mr Willin Low, pointed out that while music is not allowed in his modern Singaporean restaurant Roketto Izakaya in Amoy Street, a gym nearby was blaring music loudly during a class where members were exercising without masks. “How is that different from my restaurant?” he asked.

Chef-owner Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends, a modern Australian eatery near Keong Saik Road, echoed the sentiment. “There is a lack of logic with the rules applied among the different sectors because you can have 100 people sitting in an airplane eating with their masks off. And is not having music really going to have an impact on Covid-19 transmission?”