Restaurants are mostly happy about getting back to indoor dining, some scrambling to hire staff.

Restaurants, cafes and breweries in South Okanagan are celebrating at Tuesday鈥檚 announcement that indoor dining is back on.

La Casa Ouzeria Restaurant is elated to be back to indoor dining.

鈥淲e cannot even begin to explain how excited we are to welcome all of our wonderful guests back inside,鈥� they posted on their Facebook page.

Jim Roepcke, co-founder of Meeples and Milkshakes Board Game Cafe said this will be the first time in six months they鈥檝e been able to fully host people inside. As a new business in town, they were hit hard with the restrictions.

鈥淔irst the restrictions in mid-November took out a big chunk of our revenue, but the circuit breaker restrictions cut our revenue a further 75 per cent so we had to cut our hours to weekends only.

鈥淲e are excited about today鈥檚 (Tuesday鈥檚) announcements which for the first time in over six months will allow friends to legally gather at the cafe to play board games with each other. We are now open Tuesday to Sunday again.鈥�

The other challenge for Meeples and Milkshakes was being ineligible for wage and rent subsidies since they are a new business.

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 had these losses subsidized like many businesses,鈥� he said. Situated on Westminster Avenue, they made a patio but the indoor experience of playing a game while eating a waffle or drinking a milkshake is way better.

One problem of going back to indoor dining is getting staff to come back under short notice.

Most restaurants across South Okanagan are hiring for servers, cooks to dishwashers and hosts, many of whom were laid off during the restrictions.

Shaughnessy鈥檚 Cove just opened up its waterfront restaurant in Summerland on the May long weekend. They too are elated to have indoor dining. They are among the many restaurants hiring.

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.

newstips@pentictonwesternnews.com
Like us on and follow us on .