Home deliveries a challenge for standalone restaurants

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 22

Restaurants, largely standalone, have once again been put in a tight spot as fresh Covid-19 curbs only allow takeaways and home deliveries, prohibiting dine-ins. The food business that already got hampered due to the lockdown last year is barely picking up. With fresh guidelines and rising cases, it seems the niche restaurants that earlier offered dine-ins only, will now have to cook up fresh strategies to survive the pandemic.

Most standalone cafés and restaurants in the city that were concept based or served freshly prepared food, do not depend on third party delivery. Meeta Mehra, owner of Divine Chocolate Factory, a niche café in Ranjit Avenue, says, “Businesses are affected everywhere but we have to adapt to the given situation. We have started fresh food delivery on a limited order basis to keep the business afloat during the crisis. Our employees and staff too are our priority and no one should loose their livelihood.”

Some of the oldest running restaurants like Astoria, which has been offering dine-in services for decades, are now turning to home deliveries to keep the business running. Even big hotel chains, such as Taj are now offering home delivery of food to adapt to the post-pandemic foodscape. While the logistics involved with home deliveries and maintaining safety standards are a concern, another challenge for these restaurants is the already existing takeaway chains. “Amritsar is one of the biggest food market is the region and there are multiple small to large food chains running in city for ages. Now, the challenge for standalone restaurants is how to reach out to the customers, who are already familiar with Domino’s pizza or cheap fast food vendors. The entire situation has put us in topsy-turvy as last year has already put strain on food business. Though, we are stressing on home deliveries, the focus is not on profit making but offering quality and safe food,” said Aarti Khanna, one of the managing partners of Kobe.

Contrary to dine-ins, home deliveries rely on brand familiarity and budget. “Though we do not compromise on quality and safety of food, competing with takeaway chains has become an added burden,” added Aarti.