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Lakeland restaurants ready for partial seating

Starting this week, residents across the Lakeland and the rest of Alberta can hit up their favourite restaurants and dine-in for the first time in weeks. As of Monday, provincial health officials began allowing restaurants, pubs, bars, and cafes to open up to dine-in customers — within certain guidelines.

The new dine-in regulations include having only six people per table, and everyone at the table has to be from the same cohort. If someone lives alone, they are able to dine with two close contacts. The restaurant staff have to get contact information from at least one person from each cohort in case there was someone there that day who has tested positive for COVID-19. Restaurants have to close by 11 pm, and alcohol can’t be sold after 10 pm. 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Regulars to local Lac La Biche and area food establishments may notice some other changes as they go back inside local eateries, aside from the provincial restrictions. Some of the changes are collateral issues caused by the COVID pandemic and its affects on staffing and overall business costs

Labone's Kitchen & Bar owner Brian Laboucane says he is looking forward to seeing in-house customers coming back again, but says some of his menu offerings won't be coming back. He will be cancelling his two-for-one  pizza deal, for starters. The reason, he said, is because of the rising food costs. By the summer,  Laboucane says the pizza could be completely taken off of the menu. 

“For the work, and what I sell, and for what I’ve got to sell it —  price-wise it's just not worth it for me anymore. I’ve got to make a change and move on,” he said.

Boston Pizza's returning table-service customers will also see some changes when it comes to the opening hours. Management at the Lac La Biche outlet say dine-in service will only be available between the hours of 4 pm and 8 pm. 

Opening day

Some restaurants welcomed their customers back with a special of the day on Monday. Costa Cafe, a local eatery that serves a range of food from sandwiches, to pasta, and specialty coffee, made their February 8 special a bacon cheeseburger with the choice of a soup or a salad.

Alberta Health officials say that as long as the COVID-19 numbers continue to go down in hospitals, restrictions will continue to loosen. Alberta is currently in step one of a four step framework to getting the province back to some form of normalcy. 

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