[imagesource: here]

In South Africa, restaurants are open again after a long hiatus during the lockdown.

It’s not all smooth sailing, though, and restaurateurs are appealing to government to allow the sale of alcohol with meals.

One group of restaurant owners has even filed court papers aimed at forcing the government to allow their patrons to drink alcohol with their meals, asking that the matter be heard as soon as Tuesday morning.

Alcohol accounts for up to 70% of profit for a number of sit-down establishments, which means that, as they scramble to make up for the losses they experienced during the lockdown, the ban on alcohol sales for on-site consumption is having a seriously negative impact on revenue.

In the UK, they’ve taken a different approach to save the industry, that goes beyond simply easing restrictions to allow restaurants to open.

Here’s Forbes:

The U.K. Treasury launched the “Eat Out to Help Out” plan pledging a 50% discount of up to £10 per head for every diner at any participating restaurant, café, pub or eligible food service establishment.

In other words, the government wants to ‘go Dutch’ on meals in the UK.

Nice.

Here’s what that will look like:

• The discount can be used unlimited times throughout the month of August, and will be valid Monday to Wednesday on “any eat-in meal,” but can’t be used for alcoholic beverages.
• This initiative aims to encourage a return to eating out that will support around 130,000 businesses and protect the jobs of their 1.8 million employees, according to the Treasury’s announcement.

The food and accommodation industry in the U.K. has furloughed over 1.4 million workers since March; the second hardest hit sector following wholesale and retail, which furloughed 1.6 million.

Restaurants, pubs, bars, and cafés in parts of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland started welcoming customers back this past weekend, for the first time since March.

They’re also beholden to strict physical distancing and sanitation protocols, much like those in place in South Africa.

So, that’s 50% off and you don’t even have to share a meal with Boris Johnson to take advantage of it.

I’ll leave you with some visual evidence of why that’s an added bonus:

Image: EDDIE/Twitter

There aren’t enough lobsters in the world to make up for that.

[source:forbes]