Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Jason, New York City is going
Speaker 1: to start third phase of the reopening that happens July six.
Speaker 1: So that means indoor dining capacity is limited to maximum
Speaker 1: occupancy and all tables must be at least six ft apart.
Speaker 1: So lots of rules and regulations, but it's slowly happening.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about the hospitality space and dining space.
Speaker 1: Back with Us is not back with us? With us
Speaker 1: is A respected voice in the restaurant world is Robert Irvine.
Speaker 1: He's cheff and host of Restaurant Impossible, back for a
Speaker 1: new season in fact, on the phone joining us from Akron, Ohio.
Speaker 1: Nice to have you here with us. How are you?
Speaker 1: How's your world? Caroline? Doing great? Thank you on mind
Speaker 1: doing what I do best? Restaurants? Well, tell well, tell
Speaker 1: us about that. Tell us what are you reopening and
Speaker 1: how's that going? Well? We're on a trip. I can
Speaker 1: tell you on the project to open six plus restaurants
Speaker 1: in the last four weeks or three weeks, I should say, um.
Speaker 1: But it's really interesting because you talk about the space
Speaker 1: and talk about New York City opening dining in I've
Speaker 1: been in Mississippi this week where there's a hundred options
Speaker 1: depending on what where you where you are in that state. Um,
Speaker 1: and I gotta tell you it's it's interesting trying to
Speaker 1: get to consumer confidence back that is that is the
Speaker 1: biggest problem we we have. You know, COVID nineteen here
Speaker 1: in March, eleven million workers or food and beverage and
Speaker 1: hospitality workers go out of work. Hundred eighty four plus
Speaker 1: countries shut down, and people are scared. People are fearful
Speaker 1: of restaurants. So Robert, how do you make them feel better? Like, like,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the way? I mean, obviously people want
Speaker 1: to be safe and they don't want to get sick.
Speaker 1: But is there something you can do or say? What
Speaker 1: are what's the thing that you can tell people to
Speaker 1: make them feel better? Yeah, Well, first of all, we
Speaker 1: have we have something called transparency. We have to be
Speaker 1: transpiratory what we're doing in the restaurants to be able
Speaker 1: to make sure that those are employees are safe and
Speaker 1: the consumers safe, you know, accountability and health and safety.
Speaker 1: We have a duty of care and responsibility to both
Speaker 1: of those employees and the customers. I mean, I'd come
Speaker 1: up with an amazing group of people, not just myself,
Speaker 1: with a project and an app called Virus Safe pro
Speaker 1: taking protocols that we would have in those respective restaurants, hotels, motels,
Speaker 1: and bars and putting into an app very simple to use, um,
Speaker 1: but it really is how do we how do we
Speaker 1: let people know that we're doing the jobs that we'll
Speaker 1: say we're doing. And everybody's been to an airport, everybody's
Speaker 1: doing to a bar, and you can see those checklists
Speaker 1: on the door said, oh we've done this, We've cleaned,
Speaker 1: we cleaned the restroom, We've done this, we've done that. Well,
Speaker 1: you know if if if you don't do it, what happens?
Speaker 1: People get sick on the virus state pro Literally, I
Speaker 1: can g tag you. So if you're smoking a cigarette
Speaker 1: outside and you're saying you're cleaning the bridge rator, I
Speaker 1: can say, well, you haven't clean your rebridge rator. Why
Speaker 1: haven't you done it? You know again, it's accountability. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, Robert, I was just thinking listening to you,
Speaker 1: it's no different from kind of the restaurant ratings that
Speaker 1: we see in New York City. ABC. Combine that with
Speaker 1: the thinking of like an uber and lift where there's
Speaker 1: you know, an app where if you go to a
Speaker 1: restaurant and you right away or or or I'm thinking
Speaker 1: even some of the you know the food apps, you
Speaker 1: know you rate it right away about what your experience was. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a way of all of us kind of contributing
Speaker 1: to this to make sure it's safe for everyone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's what exactly what virus they pro is. It's
Speaker 1: a mobile help checklist ver verification software. That's what it does.
Speaker 1: It tells me that I've cleaned something, and it tells
Speaker 1: you that it's been done like those just like those
Speaker 1: ratings that you you know, once there is a verification
Speaker 1: check on the outside of your restaurant the wind though.
Speaker 1: It's really simple. Folks can take the phone check or
Speaker 1: take a photograph and very trying the QR code and
Speaker 1: it tells me exactly what's happened in that restaurant at
Speaker 1: that day, so I feel safe. All the protocols, the
Speaker 1: gloves of the mass of social distances, the refrigerator that
Speaker 1: was checked to make sure that it was in temperature,
Speaker 1: that this one was doing, the toilet this one was doing, say, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, we're going to make
Speaker 1: sure that the employees are following and performing all of
Speaker 1: those mandated measures and protocols that we set in place. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: nobody's going to those restaurants unless we get that consumer
Speaker 1: confidence back and we show that we're doing the right things.
Speaker 1: But they're not coming back. We're not making money, and
Speaker 1: especially especially as now we're you're talking about fifty New
Speaker 1: York City where I am here, it's only twenty five percent,
Speaker 1: So we've got to make up all that money for
Speaker 1: the other semi fiber and you'll take fift. So where's
Speaker 1: the revenue coming from? So I've gotta look at We've
Speaker 1: got to look at how the hours extended we are.
Speaker 1: We've got a ton of the revenue sources coming in.
Speaker 1: Is it carry out? Is it liqutor, is it you
Speaker 1: know all those things. And if people are not visiting,
Speaker 1: we're going out of business. And that's my biggest concern.
Speaker 1: Thirty of mom and pop businesses will not be able
Speaker 1: to make it through this coronavirus pandemic. You think of
Speaker 1: this of the smaller sort of single owned restaurants, yes,
Speaker 1: totally wow. So what is the restaurant feel like you
Speaker 1: know all if all the safety protocols are followed, Robert,
Speaker 1: how different does it feel if I'm walking in to
Speaker 1: have dinner. Well, it gives you. If you if you
Speaker 1: check on the QUOD number one and you know that
Speaker 1: these protocols have been followed, you're still going to be
Speaker 1: met by somebody that's wearing a mask, which is very
Speaker 1: unusual for us. We're not used to that, or or
Speaker 1: a visor in some cases, and I've seen both. Um,
Speaker 1: it's very unnerving. But once you get used to sitting
Speaker 1: down in the server talking to you, you have to
Speaker 1: have a mask on this. This the server bring is
Speaker 1: the clean food. Somebody else comes along and removes the
Speaker 1: dirty plates. Um, a completely different person by the way. Um,
Speaker 1: and these are these are that's a new norm. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's going to change until we have a vaccine,
Speaker 1: and even then, I still believe these protocols will be
Speaker 1: in place. And those that don't follow these protocols, we've
Speaker 1: seen what's been happening in those states that have not
Speaker 1: been wearing masks and not been doing these things. There's
Speaker 1: a there's a reassurgence of the pandemic. Coronavirus is coming back,
Speaker 1: and I've already seen in certain places in Tampa. There's
Speaker 1: some places or St. Pete speech, I'm sorry that are
Speaker 1: closed because of that. So you know, we really have
Speaker 1: a and I say this world because we use it
Speaker 1: in the military or the sentence and duty of care,
Speaker 1: our responsibility to make sure that we make you feel safe.
Speaker 1: I do feel like we're living in an era where
Speaker 1: there's a lot of responsibility upon all of us to
Speaker 1: change a lot in our world. M Robert, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Robert round chef and a host of Restaurant
Speaker 1: Impossible joining us on the phone from seventeen season. I know,
Speaker 1: I know. Yeah, it's pretty much longevity in this media world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that stuck with me and that mom pop restaurants will
Speaker 1: not make it through k Crater our restaurant critic uh
Speaker 1: an expert. She's been talking to us about how hard
Speaker 1: hit that industry is going to be