Cigarette after a long day of work costs Ling dearly: ‘Forced closure too sad for words’ | Inland

She still can hardly believe it, that’s what it sounds like on the phone on Friday. “The business was closed at 11 p.m., everything was locked, the cushions were already inside. The three of us were still smoking a cigarette, because it was so warm inside and we were still waiting for our dishwasher. We just had to go outside for a while”, Ling sighs. She opened her business in 2019 and was only able to make little turnover due to the corona crisis.

It turned out to be an expensive and especially sour cigarette for the owner of the Asian restaurant that had to close its doors for months because of the previous lockdown. “Suddenly there were two boas at our tables telling them to make a report about this. Then give a warning first. How am I supposed to pay for all this? I was fully booked for the weekend. We can cancel everyone while my stock has to run out. It’s too sad for words.”

‘Not a good signal’

Pizzeria Antonio’s in Eindhoven, also on the Dommelstraat, had to close earlier this week because the staff was still drinking something after noon. Both catering businesses announce that they will go to court about the decision, but must remain closed until then. They don’t think the rules are clear enough. “We hope in this way to denounce the injustice that the municipality of Eindhoven is doing to entrepreneurs,” Antonio’s said.

The local department of the Koninklijke Horeca Nederland agrees and finds the measures taken in the city of light ‘not a good signal to the catering industry’.

The spokesperson for the municipality of Eindhoven who deals with the corona policy confirms the forced closure, but did not want to comment further by phone on Friday. “The national corona rules that prescribe that catering establishments must be completely closed at midnight will be enforced,” the municipality said in an email to De Telegraaf.

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