A Nanaimo coffee shop owner says he’ll be keeping certain hygiene restrictions in place after everything ‘returns to normal’.
“Some of them we’ll keep around,” said Scott Henderson, owner of Brewed House. “The idea of every hour, you know, spraying the door handle. We have notices on tables to say ‘don’t sit here until it’s been sanitized.’ We have things that say ‘it’s clean and you’re welcome to sit here’, and you flip it over and it says ‘this is dirty and it needs to be sanitized’. That’s actually not a bad thing to continue with.”
Henderson said that he had to deal with the ‘bureaucracy’ of reopening his cafe where his family previously operated ‘The Buzz’ in 2008. He added that doing it during COVID has made it interesting.
“It’s harder to get some staff. I think there’s a lot of people who aren’t used to working [because of COVID], and so this idea of working again, some people find that challenging because I think they’re already starting a little anxious.”
Henderson states that in his time working summers at his cafe, things tend to be slower. However, due to COVID isolating people, he thinks that others may be ‘used to’ the lack of things going on.
“As somebody older, I look forward to getting rid of the plexiglass and the masks. I can handle one or the other, but both? I just sit there going ‘pardon? What?’ So, I’m looking forward to some face time. That’ll be nice.”
Henderson said he’s confident that his family-owned shop will fare well in its new location, as they try to foster a community with staff and customers.
Brewed House was previously based out of ‘Upland and Rutherford’, around 10km away. They will be opening their doors to customers on Wednesday.
