Today, restaurateurs are faced with an equation that is very difficult to solve: how to find a sufficient level of activity after three months of closure due to the coronavirus, when the health protocol still prevents them from fully exploiting their establishment? Protected tables, reinvented hotels, upset menus ... In France moves on Europe 1, Thursday noon, three entrepreneurs came to present their innovation to allow a more sustained recovery in this recovering sector, while respecting barrier gestures.
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Small greenhouses to protect your table from the outside
Philippe Raoux heads the Atelier des Serres, a French manufacturer specializing in garden greenhouse in all its forms. Since the start of the crisis, it has launched somewhat special models: "Small greenhouses with two covers, four covers, or six covers to respect barrier gestures and physical distance," he explains.
"Made of aluminum with glass glazing", these greenhouses allow customers of a restaurant to eat in isolation from the rest of the establishment. "We do not necessarily need to fix them to the ground, they are self-supporting," he explains about these greenhouses, with a price of 1,600 to 2,000 euros excluding taxes. And don't panic in the heat: "In a greenhouse, different equipment minimizes the temperature, such as the door, the vents ... There is no air coming in if you close, you can manage the flow of air "and eat quietly without risking being contaminated.
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Lunch or dinner in a hotel room
With the coronavirus crisis, Matthieu Deshayes encountered three questions for his hotel Jehan de Beauce, four stars in Chartres: "How to make profit from unoccupied hotel rooms, what to do with stationary kitchens, how to respect the constraint of gestures fence ?" The manager of the establishment has decided to launch an innovative formula: "The client books a private lunch or dinner on tabledhotel.fr which takes place in a hotel room in which the bed has been replaced by a table."
In this configuration, the restaurant becomes somewhat private and "the bed becomes an option". Especially since "the meal is exceptional, with a five-course tasting menu, which allows you to discover all the talents of the chef" Maurice Alexis, 24 years of service in the kitchens of the Élysée on the counter.
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A catering service to make your menu attractive
Manager of the Horizon restaurant in Juan-les-Pins, Ludovic Lequien decided to turn the page on his semi-gastronomic menu at the time of deconfinement: "We decided to make a catering service, by buying refrigerated display cases and an oven pizza. We invested 10,000 euros, "says the restaurant owner. "I wanted a contact with the customer while respecting the distance. There is a meter away, and the customers have a visual on what we offer them." And this little revolution seems to be working: "We made about 50% of the figure for 2019 over the period from May 15 to 31."
Other initiatives are flourishing to minimize the risk of contamination on restaurant tables. Several companies, such as Miap or Mizogoo, thus offer to create menus accessible via a QR Code to be flashed with their mobile phone, while Simply Resto provides the translation of the menu in ten languages, to prepare for the long-awaited return of foreign tourists hexagonal restaurants.