Restaurants have been hit hard during pandemic, especially in eastern Quebec

With many pandemic restrictions in the province being lifted, restaurant dining rooms are operating at full capacity, but thousands of businesses didn't last long enough to enjoy it.

Eastern Quebec has been hit especially hard, and restaurants in the region that have survived are reeling.

"It's the first time I've been wondering if I'm going to stay open," said Isabelle Hubert, who owns Café Luna in New Carlisle, Que. — a small town on the southern coast of the Gaspé peninsula.

"The restaurant business is already pretty difficult and volatile. The last two years have been a test."

Hubert says she had to get creative to keep her business alive. She converted half of her small dining room into a boutique where she sells souvenirs, crystals, candles and hand-made crafts — "to not have all my eggs in one basket."

She didn't want to go further into debt by taking on government pandemic loans and she says she didn't qualify for subsidies because she runs her small business out of her home with only one part-time employee.

Hubert says she probably wouldn't have made it through the last two years without the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

"It helped me pay my bills and get to the next month," she said.

Bleak numbers

Quebec's Restaurant Association says the numbers from the last two years are discouraging. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Foods, which issues restaurant permits, shows 3666 restaurants across the province have closed their doors since February 2020.

In the Lower Saint Lawrence and North Shore regions there was a 20 per cent drop in permits. In the Gaspé and on the Magdalen Islands, the number of permits handed out is down nearly 15 per cent.

Among the casualties is L'Eau à la Bouche, a quaint fine-dining restaurant in the municipality of Saint-Maxime-du-Mont-Louis in the Gaspé, which permanently closed last fall. Owner Clarissa Bernatchez told Radio-Canada the province's public health measures were difficult to enforce, especially with tourists, and the vaccine passport was the last straw.

"People were arriving from Ontario or other places outside the province and didn't have the required documents," she said.

"Someone would show up and we would have to make tough choices. We couldn't take reservations. Everywhere we turned, we were stuck."

Martin Vézina, the restaurant association's spokesperson, says shutdowns, restrictions and rising costs have all hit business owners hard. But he says staffing remains one of the biggest challenges.

"[It's] not just inflation, it's the labour shortage," he said. "We have less and less workers, it's difficult … to receive temporary workers. I challenge you to find an open dining room on Monday for the lunch service."

Adjusted expectations

Tourism picked back up last summer, but Hubert says it was strange to have so many visitors in the Gaspé, with fewer businesses to welcome them.

"It was eerie," she said. "So many places closed down or changed their hours. Seeing almost double the people that used to come usually and not being able to offer the same service … it created a bottleneck and maybe a bit of frustration for some travellers."

Hubert says anyone who might be considering opening a restaurant in Quebec needs to be flexible and have a long-term plan.

"Start small and give yourself some time," she said. "You have to figure out a way to have a healthy schedule."

And while restaurant owners evolve and adapt, Hubert says people's expectations are changing too.

"Now people aren't as surprised when they show up and a place is closed on a Monday," she said.