My wife and I arrived this evening for an intimate anniversary dinner, and were pleased to see a sign posted inside the entrance. It stated clearly that patrons must wear masks and keep them on until they arrive at their table. Although my wife has...leukemia and also experiences breathing problems, she is not legally obliged to wear a mask. She wears one anyway, out of respect for the public during her rare outings. We both wore our masks this evening until we were seated.
The staff were wearing masks, but not all the tables on the patio were placed a full two metres apart. We assumed that those just one metre away from any given table would be left unoccupied and be carefully monitored by the servers.
The dinner was, as always, delicious, but halfway through our main course a young couple arrived who had no masks and seated themselves barely a metre away, with the young man sitting well under one metre from my wife. We asked the server why the couple was so close and pointed out the unsafe proximity of that adjoining table. She did apologize for the oversight, but we asked for our bill anyway and requested the remaining food be packaged for take-home. The two bozos asked "why all the fuss?" and we explained that the Ontario protocol was not being respected. They responded that in Québec the rules were less stringent ("one metre distance") and for them a bit of a mishmash that is hard to follow. Well, welcome to Ontario you two birdbrains, where the protocol is more restrictive and where the infection level is much lower than in your province! It's almost impossible to reason with people who have peatmoss for brains and choose to ignore the realities of this global health crisis, hence we were not reluctant to depart after the two-minute exchange of unpleasantries.
As we were leaving, management and staff apologized for their oversights in terms of masks, placement of tables, and seating of patrons, but it should not have happened in the first place. This is the only food-serving establishment in Ottawa where I have not been made to feel safe right from the minute I enter the premises. And this is stated with regret.More