The last couple of weeks have certainly been some interesting ones. After lockdown restrictions were lifted even more in the middle of last month our indoor capacity went from 25 to 35, something that might seem insignificant but made a huge difference. In total now we can have around 40 people including outside, and this has resulted in our weekends being much busier.
In more exciting news we were named as a finalist for the Northern Beaches Local Business Awards. As far as i know we are the only restaurant in Collaroy currently a finalist, though they are still going to announce some more. We have been putting so much effort in, and when we signed up a month ago thought this was going to be incredibly difficult and always said we would be happy to just be a finalist. Now that we are a finalist we have our sights set on winning, though we are under no illusions that we are definitely not the favourites to do so considering the more established competition. For us this is great as we always look to improve our services, this has given us specific areas to focus on in relation to our web presence and front of house service. We are also working on perfecting our pizzas and constantly improving them, and our new pizza chef is helping us achieve this alongside our Sous chef (the former pizza chef).
The only negatives to come out of this month is the news of a resurgence of the virus in Victoria, something that is making us incredibly nervous. Surviving one lockdown was hard enough and only achievable through government support and assistance from our landlords. If this happens again I have no doubt we will survive throughout it, although the first time took its toll on our staff. The most worrying thing is that we are about to hire two new full time staff members, and if we go back into lockdown neither will be eligible for assistance. Though this is not a good enough reason for us not to bother, as we must all look forward to the future and try to come out the other side stronger without being fearful merely cautious and prepared for every possibility.
The final positive from last month is our Uber and takeaway sales continue to rise steadily, we hope because we are putting up multiple specials for both (maintaining our 20% off takeaway and introducing 3 different Uber specials). In the current environment maintaining this is vital to the success of the business as we do not know when social distancing requirements will end and we can return to normal.
Thanks again to everybody who voted for us in the Northern Beaches Local Business Awards, it really does mean the world to us and though we do not do this for recognition it certainly helps lift the spirits of the staff who have all put so much work into the success of this business over the last year. We can only hope to end up as one of the best Italian restaurants on the Northern Beaches so that we can eventually expand beyond.
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