It’s time to show up, eat up and pay up

Today, for the first time in more weeks than we care to remember, there are restaurants, cafes, pubs and hotels open for business.

Sunshine Coast restaurants are starting their road to recovery and deserve our support. Pic Megan Slade.

TODAY, for the first time in more weeks than we care to remember, there are restaurants, cafes, pubs and hotels open for business.

But it’s not business as usual and, for those throwing open their doors, there’s not likely to be any money in it, either.

As the restrictions are peeled back, we have to start on the road to recovery and for many businesses that means they are getting ready to don the aprons, turn on the hotplates and give it a red-hot go.

With seating for only 10 people at a time, it’s going to be tough to make a living and probably not viable for most businesses – but small business people are resilient, determined and resourceful and many of them will today take a leap of faith that we will support them.

And support them we must.

But we must remind ourselves now is not the time to criticise or complain if something is not quite right.

The doors have been closed for weeks and the lights have been off.

We need to give them time to find their rhythm as they adjust and reawaken a business that has lain dormant for nearly two months.

We need to show up, eat up and pay up.

We need to be patient and kind if a meal takes a little longer than we hoped. We need to offer understanding and sympathy if what we wanted is no longer on the menu and we need to be grateful we can once again enjoy the simple pleasure of dining out.

We also need to be grateful that restrictions are easing. Grateful that our incredible chefs, cooks and restaurateurs are being brave enough to open, when in all likelihood it’s costing them money. And grateful that we can once again dine out with family or friends who have come through this safe and well.

Now is the time to be supporting each other as we rebuild but let us offer support, encouragement and kindness as we do this – not judgment or negativity.

Let us be generous with our words of gratitude and, where we can, with our wallets.

And be the reason they have the will and the strength to open the doors the next day and the day after that.

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