Strasbourg (AFP)

"Tuesday morning, we will be ready": in Strasbourg, employees of the famous restaurant Maison Kammerzell redouble their efforts before welcoming their first customers since mid-March and finally turning the page on containment.

Mask on the face, rag and can of disinfectant in his hands, Vincent Leclopé is busy with woodwork: "I first remove all the dust" accumulated during the long weeks of closure, a first step before others disinfections, explains the butler.

Indeed, just passing the product once is not enough: "the dust might stick to the wood and it would not be clean", he continues.

Windows, handles, tables, chairs ... "We spent several hours cleaning everything" and hunting for coronavirus. "On Monday, we have a second Covid disinfection, even more advanced," adds Théo Stutzmann, also butler.

"You have to be able to put glasses and cutlery on the tables" and that everything is ready to welcome customers on Tuesday, agrees Vincent.

- "Confident" -

Like Vincent and Théo, there were ten or so employees of Maison Kammerzell in this long Pentecost weekend, to brick, dust, disinfect the rooms of one of the most prestigious restaurants in Strasbourg, where seated heads of state and stars from around the world.

Built in 1427, classified as a historic monument, the elegant half-timbered building resembling a fairytale house sits in the heart of Strasbourg's historic center, right next to the imposing cathedral.

Its terrace, usually taken by tourists, is this time occupied by employees busy measuring the distances between tables, physical distancing requires. On the floor, white dots serve as benchmarks for arranging tables and chairs.

The establishment, renowned for its three fish sauerkraut and which can serve up to 1,200 covers per day, will have to give up part of its tables and cutlery. Inside and on the terrace, the "Kamm" will lose "20%" each time, estimates his boss, Jean-Noël Dron.

But "the interest of Maison Kammerzell" is its "ten different rooms", with "three large" usually dedicated to banquets and which will be "completely refurbished into rooms for + individual +" and will limit losses of Covered.

"We are very confident," said Mr. Dron: when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Thursday that cafes and restaurants could reopen on June 2, "we were able to finalize the opening + check lists + and then we unroll them Tuesday morning, we will definitely be ready. "

A prospect which can only delight the more than 80 employees of the establishment: two and a half months after the "shock" of the announcement of the confinement and the closure of "non-vital" establishments, the employees "really want to to resume, "smiles the entrepreneur.

- "A crazy good" -

"It will do us a lot of good," confirms Théo Stutzmann, even if staff and customers will quickly have to adopt new practices, such as the mandatory mask for servers. It is also probable that the salt, pepper and other mustard pots disappear from the tables, in favor of "single-dose sachets".

"We all once asked the salt shaker to a neighbor at the table. There, it will no longer be possible," warns Mr. Stutzmann.

Customers will also have to arrive and circulate in the restaurant with a mask, and will obviously be exempted at the table. As soon as they get up, for example to go to the bathroom, they will have to put it back, warns Jennifer Viix, commercial director of the establishment.

As for the access to the three floors of the restaurant, it will be by two different staircases: one reserved for the rise, the other for the descent in order to avoid that the customers meet, specifies Théo Stutzmann.

On the eve of the recovery, Jean-Noël Dron suspects that the restaurant world "is entering a totally unknown period", a perspective that does not make him "not at all worried": the Maison Kammerzell "has known since 1427 multiple epidemics, numerous wars. One thing is certain: this building and this establishment will outlive us all. "

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