"What's the difference between picking up food and going to the supermarket?" | Israel today

While the ban on self-collection from restaurants remains in place, restaurateurs continue to protest • CEO of "Strong restaurateurs together": We will continue the war until the government recovers "

Uncertainty among restaurateurs ahead of the impending closure, the second in number, continued yesterday (Tuesday) as well.

Most of the anger and confusion is directed at the issue of self-collection, which puts quite a few restaurants in the "casualty database" that, thanks to the same collection option, managed to survive the previous closure. 

The restaurateurs 'break the dishes' outside the Taizo restaurant // Photo: Liran Oheli

In the evening, some of the restaurateurs gathered at the Taizo restaurant in Tel Aviv, and broke plates as part of the "Breaking the Dishes" protest in response to the treatment of them.

"We are here to fight for the restaurant industry and business life," said Tomer Moore, CEO of Strong Restaurants Together. "Breaking the tools symbolizes the great crisis we are experiencing and the heart that is broken by the conduct of the government.

We will continue to fight and break the tools until the Israeli government recovers and allows restaurants to continue working. "

Meanwhile, small food businesses are trying to think of alternative solutions to survive even in the near quarantine, and mostly wondering what else they need to do to survive.

"What's the difference between picking up food from a restaurant and going to the supermarket?" Gal Gal Oxenberg, owner of "Bengal Chickpeas" in Modi'in, wondered.

"I do not understand, it's just delusional. If I had run my business the way the crisis of the hummus restaurants has been around for a long time it would not have existed. I have to turn the world around to continue to survive." 

"I do not have deliveries because I do not have the ability to set up such an array with economic viability. I understand the problematic situation but I can not inform my employees over and over again that they are going to the IDF and at the same time they see other places, more or less important, remain open."

"In the previous closure, I threw away thousands of shekels of goods, took out a lot of workers to the IDF and the operation of the place required a complete revolution and a completely new logistical system," said Kfir Boyum, owner of the Giocoso restaurant in Haifa. "To cover the loan we took out following the previous closure which significantly hurt the restaurant's revenue, the current news is coming."

"We expect and hope for support from our customers, hope that the remaining employees will really stay and especially that we will return to a full routine soon. We do not understand the ban on taking takeaway, we are a small restaurant and do not operate a routine delivery system, so we need or set up "Or just get hurt."

"The lower city of Haifa, the area where the restaurant is located, invites a large crowd, especially on weekends and during the week itself, the ban on selling takeaway hurts us and our customers directly. Around the restaurant are dozens of offices with many employees who want to come and buy food at noon. Provisions prohibiting this. We are talking about a single number of people, who may stand outside the restaurant at intervals and wait a few minutes until the takeaway is received. Does it make sense to have a 20 sqm falafel stand that can accommodate the same number of diners as a 300-seat restaurant?

It is up to you to decide. "