INTRODUCTION

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To understand how to best navigate this unprecedented time and support restaurant and foodservice operators, the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA) has been working closely with industry leaders, multiple government agencies, technology experts, legal advisors and key supply partners. Together, we have developed DineSafe, a catalogue of best practices to help guide your safe and successful reopening. 

Focusing on processes that protect staff and guests and exceed health and safety expectations, this guide aims to provide the roadmap to restaurant recovery. By following these recommendations, we can each design safe, welcoming spaces that inspire public trust, so our industry as a whole can not only survive but thrive. 

More specifically, this practical guide to reopening is organized in the flow of a typical guest experience, and it outlines required and desired health and safety deliverables, as well as elements you should uniquely consider for your particular operations. 

While we may have to modify our approach and update our spaces, two core elements of our business remain: our dedication to looking after our teams and our guests; and our mission to provide safe and memorable dining experiences—ones guests want to return to and want to tell others about. Today, more than ever before, we have the opportunity to demonstrate our collective commitment to hospitality excellence. 

Recognizing the situation is quickly evolving, ORHMA is continuing to collaborate with the Province of Ontario, as well as other industry suppliers and specialists, and will continue to provide you with updated tools and resources. We are here to assist you and the industry in any way we can, and welcome any questions, recommendations or requests you may have.  

Guests and staff alike will be evaluating every element of the experience—from approaching the restaurant and being seated to dining and paying—more critically throughout the reopening transition. With guests first visiting experimentally, they will be assessing how safe and enjoyable their experience was, and will likely share their impression with others. This is your opportunity to make a positive, lasting impact. 

As an operator and a leader, it is imperative you adopt a thoughtful approach, with a “touchless and distanced” environment being the new ideal. In this guide, ORHMA has compiled the widely accepted best practices for your consideration. 

This is a new paradigm for the restaurant and foodservice industry as a whole. Individually and as a collective, we will be most successful if we recognize that behaviours, motivations and expectations have changed; and we adapt to and embrace our new reality.