A quiet New Year's eve at restaurants as Covid caution trumps celebration

Cafes and clubs have either cancelled or scaled down the events depending on local restrictions.

It will be a quiet New Year’s Eve at restaurants and bars due to night curfews and bans on celebrations in various states.

Cafes and clubs have either cancelled or scaled down their events depending on local restrictions. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have imposed a night curfew while Chennai has decided to ban all vehicular movement except emergency vehicles from Friday midnight to 5 am on Saturday.

In Mumbai, restaurants and bars are allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity till midnight but there is a ban on celebrations on December 31.

Municipal officials and the police are stepping up their vigil to limit the number of violations of Covid-19 norms. Mumbai hotels have been asked to share CCTV footage of their premises with the local ward office.

“Business is going to be muted on December 31. There are booking cancellations. Even in normal times, home deliveries are in demand on New Year’s Eve and it will be even higher today.  Food delivery apps could face a challenge in fulfilling them,” said Pranav Rungta, Mumbai chapter head of the National Restaurant Association of India.

A spokesperson for food delivery app Swiggy said it hoped to fulfil the expected surge in orders. “As more and more users turn to food delivery and Swiggy’s instant grocery service Instamart, we expect to reach new peaks this New Year's Eve.We have beefed up our teams as we expect a surge in orders for New Year’s. We have completed hyperlocal demand-supply planning and identified the specific slots which would see an increase in demand due to early ordering patterns. Delivery partners’ incentives and schemes are also tailored to satisfy this early ordering pattern,” said a Swiggy spokesperson.

“We expect this year to be no different and are fully geared for it. We have expanded the capacity of our delivery fleet and our support and operations staff to ensure customers have a great experience on the platform on the day,” said a Zomato spokesperson.

Restaurant-ordering platform Thrive also expects bumper orders. “We have already seen a 20 per cent spike in delivery orders since the start of the month as compared with November,” said Dhruv Dewan, co-founder at Thrive.

Dewan said the surge in orders today will be particularly high as, having cancelled going to restaurants and bars, people stay at home and order in.  

In Delhi, restaurants facing losses have petitioned the government for help. The National Restaurants’ Association of India (NRAI) has complained to Lt Governor Anil Baijal about serious on-the-ground challenges and harassment when it comes to delivering food during curfew hours. 

“The association has asked for the food delivery service to be treated as an essential service. This will bring much-needed relief to the industry and help prevent further job losses,” said NRAI secretary-general Prakul Kumar. 

 As cases rise in Kolkata, most clubs have cancelled dance parties and gala celebrations. “It will be a normal day for clubs on Friday and there will be no bash,” said Tolly Club CEO Anil Mukerji.

Restaurants and pubs in Bengaluru are anxious about the best night of the year, when they make 50 per cent of their December revenue, becoming a washout.  Celebrations will not be allowed anywhere in the city after 10 pm and restaurants, hotels, clubs, and pubs have to operate with 50 per cent seating capacity from 30 December to 2 January.

“The impact and loss are immeasurable as all are losing bookings and cancellations are happening every minute as there is no clarity yet. Most people have left the city or booked resorts on the outskirt or at farm houses,” said Amit Roy, a restaurateur in the city and partner at Shilton Hospitality.

In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the state government has urged people to avoid non-essential travel. Given the ban son vehicular traffic in Chennai on New Year’s Eve, the city’s residents are flocking to Puducherry which is allowing beach parties and celebrations at hotels.  

Rajkumar Rajan, vice president of the Chennai Hotels Association, said around 25 per cent — or nearly 500 hotels in the city — are yet to restart operations after being shut during the pandemic.

“New Year’s Eve were supposed to be a big boost for our industry but with parties off the menu, business will be as dull as it has been for the past two years,” said Rajan.

(Aneesh Phadnis, Sharleen D’souza, Shine Jacob and Deepsekhar Choudhury contributed to this report)