With the COVID-19 restrictions easing up, some Pontiac eaterys have changed some of their measures of operation set in place at the beginning of the shutdown.

Crystal Dubeau, owner of . . .

Rumours Café in Otter Lake, said the business has opened up their mini putt this past weekend, since there was a government directive allowing oublic gatherings of up to 10 people.

The mini putt can be booked only for suppers, with the restaurant maintaining the same schedule since the start of the pandemic.

As for their escape room, Dubeau said she hopes they will be able to re-open it by the summer. The room can only be booked by private groups, meaning individuals will not be grouped with strangers and risk contamination, according to Dubeau.

Breakfast is still not being served and there are no more of its items left for the restaurant to be giving out.

When groceries were hard to obtain, the restaurant had ordered boxes of fruits and vegetables and shipped them out to customers.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Dubeau said she would close down the restaurant if there were to be a case on premises. She has not needed to do that, given the lack of cases in the region.

Customers also still prefer to pay by card, or e-transfer.

Since the reopening of the bridges, some cottagers have made their way up to the restaurant, despite the media telling them to go straight to their cottage and avoid pit stops, according to Dubeau.

“We’ve done deliveries for them, but they’re kinda hiding out, I guess,” said Dubeau

Orders from suppliers are now steady for Rumor’s and the owner of Billy T’s Pizza, Brodie Telford, also said that this situation has improved in his restaurant as well.

The same cannot be said for Waltham’s Station, however.

According to their owner, Cobe Rabb, supplies are still a “hit and miss”, where some weeks some of the restaurant’s orders might not arrive. The delayed supplies vary from week to week, depending on what the producers are running short of.

“It, sort of, goes along with this you can’t find in the grocery store, either,” she said. “So, one week I couldn’t get yeast. This week they didn’t send me any flour,” said Rabb.

The restaurant is still having a window open for customers to put in their orders and retrieve them, as the inside remains closed to the public and it is also still trying to encourage debit or credit transactions.

“We were super busy while the [provincial] borders were closed and now that the borders have opened, we are not as busy as before but still doing okay,” said Rabb.

In the case of the restaurant’s deliveries, the situation is different.

“We actually haven’t had a huge demand for delivery, like we have, maybe, one a day,” she said. “I think most people are just happy for an excuse to get out of the house,” said Rabb

These deliveries are usually made in the evening, when the restaurant has someone in the kitchen available to make the run.

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