The Jaja of the Complex Jules-Dallaire in Ste-Foy and Lebourgneuf are closing their doors.
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10 June 2020 19h54
Updated at 23h04
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Dining Delights closes two of its three Jaja
Jean-François Tardif
The Sun
The pandemic has made its first victims in the field of restoration. The group’s Restaurants, Delights announced that it was closing down two of its establishments, or the Jaja of Lebourgneuf and the Jaja of Complexe Jules-Dallaire, two restaurants that did not meet the profitability expectations prior to the pandemic.
This is in order to cope with a recovery that promises to be challenging as the Group’s Restaurants, Delights has put in place a business plan adjusted, which will allow him to pass through the next 24 months.
“We had to make difficult decisions,” explained Mr. Pierre Moreau, ceo of Groupe Restos Plaisirs. “But from the moment we were forced to close, we thought to re-opening, we began to look at what was happening elsewhere in the world and we began to ask questions about the kind of traffic that we had.
We had restaurants that had an average annual return, or void that is compensated for by other institutions, which were extremely profitable. But we don’t even know if was going to be able to make our expenses in those.
“There will be no international tourism and intra-Quebec, during the 10-12 coming months, which is an important source of income for the city. ”
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Pierre Moreau, ceo of Groupe Restos Plaisirs
“I operate the most popular restaurants accessible to everyone. A large part of my income for the week come to a business meal for lunch and for business lunches in the morning. The people are still in confinement and will be home until the month of September minimum. And there are some big companies that have already warned their people that they would be up in January. I’m 58, it’s been a long time that I am in the business and I am able to calculate. We knew that the traffic in our restaurants would be reduced. Close both of our restaurants was a big question based on the logic and where it was necessary to remove all emotion. Because of a restorer, to close a restaurant, it is worse than a sentence of love.”
In addition to close two facilities, the Group Eating Pleasures has announced that its schools will now have their opening hours reduced. Available from 18 June, the five Pig Dingue, Paris Grill, the Coffee in the World, The Rabbit Jumped and Ms. Thing will not, however, not open on Mondays and Tuesdays and they close at 15h on Sunday. In order to accommodate the greatest number of customers possible while respecting the rules of distance, the terraces of these institutions will be enlarged anywhere it is possible to do so. The Jaja of the Concorde will resume its activities in reduced form as early as Saturday and will offer take-home meals. The terrace will be accessible Monday. Finally the Sky will open in July at a date to be determined and the catering service located in the Pavillon Lassonde, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNABQ) will open on 23 June and it will offer lunch boxes and tasty meals on the go.
For its part, the project of opening a Pig Crazy on the rue Saint-Jean has been delayed for a year. The site has been closed and will be reopened in January 2021 which will lead to the opening of a new Pig Crazy in the summer of 2021. The Group’s Restaurants, Delights also had the project of taking the whole of the restoration at the MNBAQ. It has renegotiated its agreement to not open for the time that a restaurant with a reduced service. “Gradually we will adapt the offer according to the ridership and the needs of the customer.”
Jobs lost
Employing around 950 people before the start of the pandemic, the Group Eating the Delights not of course can not recall all of its employees from the reopening of its institutions.
“We haven’t completed our to-do lists reminders. If I close two restaurants and as I operate the other at a reduced capacity with reduced hours, I feel that I will not be able to recall that between 35 % and 50 % of my employees. So it is at least 300-400 jobs that I will not be able to fill in the coming months. We think that things will gradually return to normal with the current 18 to 24 months, when we will have found a vaccine against the COVID and that there will be drugs to cure the virus. But it will take some time.”
“For a restaurateur, close a restaurant, it is worse than a sentence of love. ”
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Pierre Moreau, ceo of Groupe Restos Plaisirs
M. Moreau, however, indicated that it would be ready to cope with the demand if the congestion in its prisons justified. “We will adjust very rapidly, and there is going to be very very flexible. If it was a heat wave in the month of July, people go for a stroll in the quartier Petit Champlain, and that they want to eat in the restaurants until 23h, well I will not close down to 20h. I’m going to stay open until 23h. And if on Sunday afternoon it was beautiful and I can see that there are customers, I will not close down to 15 either.
“For the moment, I like better to give parameters to my clients and give them time just to not disappoint them. It is easier to expand my hours when it’s going better than starting over again with the hours that I had before and then start to cut to the left to the right which would have the effect of completely mix my clients. You think a lot of them in all of this.”
from Facebook, JAJA
Even if he has no intention of fighting against the rules with which it must deal in its restaurants during their opening, Mr. Moreau thinks that the government should promptly adjust its rules to the level of estrangement with those that are in force in Europe, particularly in France, and which are of a meter.
“The other rule that it will be necessary to clarify, and that concerns us greatly, it is wearing personal protective equipment. That our cooks have to wear a mask, I understand that. Goggles also. But we would like the visor from the forehead to the chin is sufficient for servers. The CNESST tells us that they will need to in addition wear a mask. But if one wants to facial expression to a waitress or server to be part of the experience offered to the customer at the reception and the service, with a mask and glasses, it will not be possible.
“I have decided that I do rode not to the barricades. I’m going to re-open the restaurants, you will greet customers and we will adapt gradually. But I have confidence that the government and the public Health will adjust things and as the situation will be back.”
