Some local restaurants are making take-out and delivery work

Photo: Contributed

Brian Atkinson behind the bar at Jacks's Pizza & Liquor.

A couple of Kelowna restaurants are finding some success with their take-out and delivery options.

Last month, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry ordered the closure of in-house dining at all B.C. restaurants, due to lack of physical distancing available. As a result, some local restaurants have temporarily closed, while others have tried shifting their business model to solely take out and delivery through services like Skip the Dishes and DoorDash.

Jack's Pizza & Liquor and Salt & Brick, which share ownership, teamed up last weekend, offering food and alcohol to go. And so far, so good.

“It's obviously not as good as being open could be, but Friday night was really good, Saturday night was really solid and Sunday night was way better than our last Sunday,” said Brian Atkinson, general manager at Jack's.

“When Salt & Brick came over, that was a big change for us. Chef James Holmes (at Salt & Brick) is well known in this community, and some of his staples, like the Brussels sprouts, the Smash Burger, mac and cheese, heirloom roasted carrots, people go to Salt & Brick for those items.”

Jack's and Salt & Brick were forced to lay off most of their staff last month, as did most restaurants in town. Atkinson said they've been operating with one chef and one front-of-house staff member, on a rotating basis, while they're open for delivery and pickup Wednesday through Sunday.

“Because there is no real other alternative, this is viable and we've got to just keep pushing forward with that,” he said.

Last weekend, the restaurants saw about 60 per cent of their sales as deliveries. Atkinson says he expects more deliveries moving forward, as people become more used to self isolating.

Last month, the provincial government temporarily amended the Liquor Control Act to allow liquor deliveries from restaurants, but the alcohol is not allowed to be pre-mixed into cocktails. Atkinson say they're working to put together to-go cocktail kits that abide by the new rules and he's hoping to have them ready for this coming weekend.

“Keep supporting local,” he said. “Supporting the community and independent business is going to go a long way to having these businesses around when everything goes back to the way it was.”