The New Year rush was restrained at restaurants and malls across the city.
The sudden spike in Covid cases had kept many patrons off their customary New Year lunch. Delivery was going strong, said restaurateurs, as many preferred to have their favourite food in the safety of their homes.
December and January are usually the busiest time for the eateries and their owners and employees had been gearing up for a bumper year-ender.
The Christmas weekend played by the book and there was a mad rush at these places.
The situation has changed drastically within just a week following the fresh surge in Covid cases.
From Park Street to Sarat Bose Road, standalone restaurants that would have serpentine queues outside on January 1 had empty tables during the peak lunch hour on Saturday. The atmosphere was no different at restaurants inside malls.
The footfall at the malls was also much lower than the usual January 1 volume, said officials.
Around 1.30pm, more than half the tables at the food court of South City Mall were empty. A bird’s eye view from the top floor suggested it was another weekday and not a New Year weekend.
Inside the mall, a restaurant serving Mediterranean fare had barely 20 per cent occupancy.
“Usually, a New Year weekend would see around one lakh visitors throughout the day. Till Saturday evening, the trend suggests the number would be barely 50 per cent,” said an official of the mall.
At Acropolis, a restaurant looked deserted. “Many people are opting for delivery. But the number of diners has been very low,” said an employee.
Around 3pm, only a couple of restaurants in the Park Street area had people waiting outside. The rest were not empty but not half as busy as they are used to being on January 1.
“January 1 is usually much busier…. But it is pretty evident that people are scared to step out now,” said Rajiv Kothari, owner of Bar-B-Q.
New Year’s Eve was also much quieter in Park Street than usual.
An official of Speciality Restaurants, the chain that owns over a dozen restaurants — many of them in malls — in Kolkata, spoke in the same vein. “Earlier, we would have people waiting outside the restaurants on New Year. Today, we had empty tables,” he said.
As the number of diners dipped, the delivery side picked up.
“On Saturday, almost fifty per cent of our business was through delivery,” said Shiladitya Chaudhuri, owner of multiple restaurants, including the Oudh 1590 chain.