"We have not finished selling Prozac in Lyon by depriving people of bars"

Le Pub Danois, located in Vieux-Lyon, is serving its last customers this Friday before closing for (at least) two weeks.

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• Restaurant owners and bar managers are paying a heavy price for the economic crisis accompanying the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Placed in the maximum alert zone from Saturday, the city of Lyon will in particular see all its bars close, for at least 15 days from 10 p.m. this Friday.

• 20 Minutes

  went to the tourist district of Vieux-Lyon, where these new measures are perceived as “unfair and unjustified”.

“They are killing businesses.

“Extremely recovered, several managers of bars and restaurants in Vieux-Lyon prefer to content themselves with this summary comment, this Friday, the day after the announcement by Olivier Véran, of the passage of the city in the maximum alert zone.

Located at the corner of the 24 Columns courthouse, the Danish Pub is going through its last opening hours with rare customers drinking a coffee on the terrace, before the imposed closure of all bars, cafes and tea rooms in the city. for the next 15 days.

“We will end up with a dead neighborhood like never before, sighs his manager Marie Pakloglou.

We have not finished selling Prozac in Lyon by depriving people of this social link that bars represent.

There, we took our marks and we barely got our heads out of the water in September, and bim… ”Even if his establishment offers pies and aperitif boards, it does not have a kitchen allowing it to keep an opening in as a restaurant.

What new changes in Lyon placed on maximum coronavirus alert?

https://t.co/ZAejHpSBDv

- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) October 9, 2020

"We don't have a Philippe Etchebest in the bars"

At his side, the manager of the Berthom beer bar, Samuel Gleize-Bourras, is preparing for "a very big last evening", before closing the premises for (at least) two weeks.

Believing this decision "unjust and unjustified", he considered a class action by approaching all the establishments in his neighborhood.

“Our biggest danger is to fall into oblivion, as is already the case with nightclubs today.

We don't have a Philippe Etchebest in bars so we lack the media aura.

" He pursues :

There, we move the problem by shooting an economy.

We are constantly told about help but we just want to do our job.

Let the state give all this money to hospitals and let us stay open.

"

The early closure of bars, since September 28, at 10 p.m. maximum, had already clearly penalized the establishments in Lyon.

“70% of my turnover is from 10 pm to 4 am,” assures Marie Pakloglou.

Not far from there, in rue Saint-Jean, Victoria Neyrand, manager of the pizzeria La Trattoria, just understood this Friday at noon that she could not remain open the next afternoon, outside of meal times.

"I even wonder why they leave the restaurants open"

"Nothing is logical in all this, I really do not see why we would be refused to serve a hot chocolate to a customer", she points out, while also being surprised at the new measure of a "notebook reminder ”listing the contact details of customers, because of this reinforced health protocol.

“I put myself in the customer's shoes, it would make me ch… to systematically give my name and my number in a restaurant.

In fact, I even wonder why they leave the restaurants open, because if we can no longer have a real evening with friends with a bar after or even before, what is the point?

While everyone is crowded in the subways and shopping malls, we are forced to refuse 60 seats like last weekend because of the distance imposed between the tables, it's hell.

"

Cynthia will lose around forty place settings in her Au Comptoir les Gones cap, due to the new rules for distance between chairs.

- Jérémy Laugier / 20 Minutes

We admit, we did not dare to tell Victoria Neyrand that the rule of the mandatory distance meter now applied between the chairs of two different groups and not only between the tables.

A novelty that clearly has its importance in the eyes of the many traffic jams in the (usually) so touristy old town.

"We will go from 82 possible covers to 42 with the new configuration that we must apply by tomorrow," observes Cynthia, manager of Au Comptoir les Gones.

As much as it was not too big a constraint not to be able to accommodate groups of more than ten people, as much the passage to six will also hurt us.

I expect very calm services and I believe that we would lose less money by closing completely during these two weeks.

"

"We take care of everyone except the bosses"

The manager of Chocathé, a chocolate shop, which also happens to be a tea room in Old Lyon, simply says she is "revolted" by these new measures which directly affect her.

She has not yet decided if she will / could open on Saturday.

Because many establishments have an "in-between" configuration, like Johnny's Kitchen, an Irish pub but also a restaurant in Saint-Georges (Lyon 5th).

"Some rules are not yet very clear, but it is obvious that I will not accept customers ordering only a plate of fries and then five pints of beer," explains manager Adrian Walsh.

Everyone should keep in mind that we are now a traditional restaurant serving lunch and dinner.

"

Manager of Johnny's Kitchen, Adrian Walsh sees from Saturday his Irish pub-restaurant lose half of its activity.

- Jérémy Laugier / 20 Minutes

He regrets the behavior of certain bars in Vieux-Lyon: “There have been establishments everywhere allowing customers to order drinks and sit outside, standing in front of bars.

Of course, this has hurt our profession.

"In his new life as an exclusive restaurateur, at least for 15 days, he knows that he will" at best run at 40% "of his activity.

“I find it scandalous not to touch a cent of direct aid from the State while I create jobs and that I am currently doing 70 hours of service per week,” he continues.

We take care of everyone except the bosses.

I haven't had a single salary since the lockdown in March, there is no lifeline for us.

"

"It's less dangerous to supervise all these young people in a bar"

About sixty Lyonnais, their backs to the wall like him for seven months, met this Friday afternoon, at the call of the president of a dance school, to demonstrate in front of the Rhône prefecture.

Among the many professions hard hit by the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, restaurateurs and bar managers are paying a heavy price, with a great deal of misunderstanding.

At the call of a president of a Lyon dance school, a demonstration took place this Friday in front of the Rhône prefecture against the closure of many establishments, including the city's bars from Saturday.

- Jérémy Laugier / 20 Minutes

“By recently closing at 10 pm, we realized that most customers wondered during the evening in which apartment they were going to have their after party,” confides Marie Pakloglou of Pub Danois.

It's still less dangerous to supervise all these young people in a bar than to allow a kind of rave party on the banks of the Rhône.

"

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