Nearly half of Arawak Cay restaurants remain closed

Two months after restaurants at Arawak Cay were allowed to resume outdoor dining, nearly half of them have yet to reopen, according to Rodney Russell, president of the Arawak Cay Association.

“Most of the business owners on Arawak Cay have not opened their establishments from March of last year,” he said yesterday.

“Some of these establishments still are not open and some won’t be opening soon.

“There are a few business owners on Arawak Cay who are really trying to ensure that Arawak Cay stays alive.”

Russell said that of the total 32 stalls, 12 or 13 are still closed.

Part of the reason for that, he said, is that owners are worried about a change in the emergency order that could again force the sudden closure of their businesses.

Last year, COVID mitigation measures saw Arawak Cay forced to close on and off for many months in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

Russell said many people lost money because of the ever-changing rules.

“One of the reasons is in the first opening, we had business owners who spent large sums of money buying stock and preparing their businesses, only to learn that after three weeks they were closed down again for a long period of time,” he said.

“Their stock and their investment had to be canceled in some form or way and now they are very skeptical whether or not they should open their business. Because they don’t know if we will have another closure.”

Willard Mckenzie, owner of Andros Hideout on Arawak Cay, said some vendors simply cannot afford to open at this point, especially given the limited manner in which they are permitted to operate.

“Some of the vendors, the lockdown, the open, the lockdown, some of them still can’t afford to come back out and run the business in the way they wanted to, you know,” he said.

Mckenzie said that while business for him hasn’t been so bad, the COVID regulations are making it difficult. He claimed that COVID ambassadors harass vendors and customers.   

“You know when you leave home, you come out to your business to try and make ends meet, to try and see if you can catch up with some of these bills,” he said.

“And being a business owner and coming out every day, you’re faced with problems because you have the COVID people. They’re out every five to 10 minutes.

“When people want to come to your business, it’s always a problem and being a business person, you have to go through this every day.

“I think the prime minister should put something in order for us to run our business in the right way in order to make a profit, and not only for ourselves but so that we can hire some people back to work.”

Bruno Minnis, owner of Bruno’s Seafood and Steak Bar, shared a similar view, noting that there seems to be a misunderstanding about whether or not bars in Arawak Cay Restaurants can operate.

“We are only having a little issues with the protocol with COVID,” he said.

“It seems like there’s a misunderstanding with what the prime minister is saying and how they are saying it. It’s like two different rules.

“We are already working with a small space just for outside dining. And what they were telling us is that customers were not allowed to sit to our bar.

“I know the prime minister said liquor stores and bars are closed, but I don’t think it was meant for us in a restaurant setting because, if we can’t get to sell drinks to persons who sit at our bar with the space we are working with, we’d just might as well be closed because we can’t see any profit like that.”

Minnis added, “All they do is threaten you about fine, fine, fine. In a time like this, that should be the last thing that they want to threaten with you when you’re trying to come back and make business for yourself.”

However, Russell said the COVID ambassadors have been a much-needed help for business owners.

“Every visitor who comes to Arawak Cay does not come to patronize,” he said.

“They find Arawak Cay a place that they can hang out and frolic with friends. You have people who come Arawak Cay and bring their own party.

“…And so when someone decides to take their camera and show the crowd on Arawak Cay carrying on, one outside of Arawak Cay will get the impression that we are lawless and this is what we are encouraging. That creates a problem for the responsible business owners at the Fish Fry.

“So, we compliment the police for helping us to control those persons who don’t want to comply with the regulations.”

Haymish Moxey, owner of Gone Fishin’ Beach Bar and Grill, said business owners often suffer for the behavior of members of the public.

“One of my greatest problems I’ve seen out here is passing here New Year’s Day in the afternoon, the place was like a fair,” he said.

“Social distancing is supposed to be enforced. We have COVID-19, but people are all around and so forth. The whole parking lot is packed with people all over the streets. You can’t even move. It’s like sardines. 

“…If we could get those kinds of things sorted out, I mean, to be honest, and not knocking anybody, but the people that come out here and are just roaming and hanging out in the parking lots with their trunks open, drinking, they’re not patronizing the businesses, but we always suffer for things like this.”

Moxey, however, said that he is adamant about following health and safety protocols. He said that even given the difficult circumstances, business has been good for him since the reopening.

“The honest truth is I can’t complain,” he said.

“Since we’ve reopened our doors, it’s been pretty good with the locals and we even saw some tourists last week Saturday – about 16 different sets of tourists in total. So, you know, we have what people are looking for.”

Minnis also noted that while things were bad last year, locals have been supportive since the reopening, and tourists seem to be returning slowly.

“For us, a small business, being closed for almost eight to nine months, it really hurt us a lot because we lose a lot of stock,” he said.

“We even had to lay off staff…so no one could have really come to work.

“But I’ve seen a great increase in business, especially from our Bahamians.

“From Christmas Day up to present, we’ve been seeing good customer business on Arawak Cay, including a little tourists. It wasn’t much tourists but now we’re starting to see the American dollar in our register now.

“So, business has been coming back slowly.”

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