A month of confinement and already such a long wait! In Poitiers, restaurateurs have recently revived their activity. If the restaurant room remains tightly closed to the public, they offer take-out or home delivery meals.
It’s good to morale!
– Jean-Baptiste Genevois, restaurateur
Jean-Baptiste Genevois runs the Corsican brasserie A Casa, place Charles VII, in Poitiers. He reopened his kitchen on Wednesday and made his first take-out sales and home deliveries. New, Wednesday evening.
“Customers tell me ‘it is good for morale!'”, He says.
“We want to fight”
“The situation is so new and, economically, it is not easy despite the government measures announced. We want to fight“, he continues, aware of the importance of achieving turnover.
I work in videoconference with my grandmother who accompanies me with his advice
– Jean-Baptiste Genevois, restaurateur
There is certainly the economic stake but the restaurateur explains that he especially “wants to recreate contact with [ses] clients”.
To restart, he had to think about implementing barrier measures.
“I am all alone in the kitchen in my establishment,” he explains. “I do everything, all by myself and I installed a device for removing the dishes.”
At the moment, “he only offers Corsican dishes: my grandmother’s recipes, which I also have by videoconference. She accompanies me with her advice.”
A few days with the announcement of the confinement, Jean-Baptiste Genevois had just received a delivery of cured meats and Corsican cheeses “directly from Bastia”. So for the moment, he has the raw material to cook.
Progressive reopenings
Other Poitevin restaurateurs have recently made the same choice as him and are now promoting it on their social networks.
This is the case, for example, of the Manhattan café, located on Place Alphonse Lepetit, which reopened its kitchen on April 10 or of the tea room Sweet Time & Company, rue de la Cathédrale, which is launching its offer this Saturday (see below).
Place Notre-Dame, Grand Ours is also preparing to follow the movement and announces the opening of a service“bicycle grocery store “.
The restaurateur specializing in vegetarian and vegan cuisine from organic farming therefore leaves his hibernation temporary and currently limits its initiative, once a week, on Wednesdays, for “Great Bear specialties to cook at home”, indicates a recent publication on social networks.
Vegetable and seafood depot
At the Le Pince-Oreille cabaret-restaurant, located rue des Trois-Rois in Poitiers, the room is also closed. But at the entrance, a new device is being developed to open a take-out space.
“We are starting this Friday,” said Antoine Peurichard, one of the three co-managers. “We have set up a specific card for delivery and take-out service. We keep the spirit of the Pince-Oreille cuisine and we will also deposit vegetables with our producer and the same with our seafood producer . “
For this restaurateur, it’s about “helping each other between traders”. He finds that at the moment, “everything is the hard way!”
We are painting and renovating
Another well-known establishment in Poitiers, the restaurant Les bons Enfants has not yet taken the road to the furnaces.
“We have chosen to paint”, explains Béatrice Philipponneau, co-manager of the restaurant since 2001 with her husband Alain.
“We redid the ceiling, the staircase and it already changes everything!”, She explains. “I wanted to take advantage of it to change the carpet but we can’t go to buy it so I was mushy. And we also cleaned the kitchen thoroughly.”
Both are considering take-out “if you have no other choice “but prefer for the moment to devote themselves to everything” that we postponed until then to the next vacation without ever having time to do it, “she continues.
“When the weather is nice, we stay at home, in the garden and we tidy up. I finally laid tiles, pebbles, I put away the attic, the garden shed, the veranda. We did our planting in the vegetable garden. I plant and repot my flowers! We are busy. ”
In 19 years of activity, Béatrice and her husband confide that they have never taken more than three weeks of vacation in the year, “and always a week at a time”. A stop of already four weeks, that changes everything.
“I admit that it is very strange, very bizarre, what we are experiencing,” she adds. “We are doing government aid files but we live mainly on our 19 years of savings, money set aside in the event of a hard blow. Aid of 1,500 euros for the self-employed is by company, not by co-manager. So, in the end, it’s not much. “
In the meantime, the two are enjoying the thrush of their garden with, this year, a touch of bitterness. Even if it is again early, for the first time, the two restaurateurs will not be able to share it with their customers.
Mobilized for the CHU
During this time, others continue their reflection and mobilize in favor of the nursing staff of the CHU.
The restaurant Les Archives, located rue Edouard Grimaud, is participating in this action with the Bois de la Marche (Fontaine-le-Comte) and the Auberge le Center Poitou (Coulombiers). Between the three of them, the chefs prepare several hundred dishes every Wednesday.
“We participate once a week”, explains Mathias Martin from the Auberge Le Center Poitou. “We make up to 700 small takeaways. We help in our own way.”
He also plans to reopen his kitchen to cook for his customers.
“I am thinking about selling take-out, but it will not be right away, perhaps at the end of April,” continues Mathias Martin. “As we are far from Poitiers, we must know what to do and for whom? For the moment, I tell myself that, as we are also a hotelier, the best would be to start with room service.”
Take-away aperitifs
In other great restaurants, the idea is also gaining ground.
“We are thinking about a take-out offer,” explains Pauline Minsé, communications and marketing manager at the Archives. “We would offer a reduced menu and pleasure products. We hope to offer our offer by the end of April.”
For his establishment, the idea is to prowl in early May to be really ready for May 11, the date announced for now the end of confinement.
“We are considering, for example, offering bottled cocktails, prepared by our bartender for an aperitif formula. It would be fairly simple and easy to launch, “she explains.
… and finally, ideal for celebrating the end of confinement.
–
