The Terrace company on the roof of the Nový Smíchov shopping center has only been operating for the third season. The first was a trial, during the second the details were fine-tuned and only now should the company be fully operational. However, this is not happening, the opening of the restaurants was sudden and there was no time to completely fine-tune the details.
“I need to do a lot of things differently and better. We are still building and finishing something here, it could not be completely finished until next week, “says the company’s manager Štěpán Kundrt.
Apart from the unexpected opening after a long period of restrictions, the company, like most restaurants in Prague, is facing an acute shortage of staff. “It’s a total exodus of people in the industry,” Kundrt said. “I glue it from my own resources, in practice it means that I didn’t have a day off for 35 days,” he describes, and manages to serve two customers.
But he can’t complain about the lack of guests. “People walk, we don’t have a problem with that,” says the manager of the Terasa bar. It can still be seen today, during the steamy Thursday afternoon most of the places are full.
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The co-owner of the L’Osteria restaurant, Zbyněk Pokorný, is also satisfied with the number of visitors. But L’Osterie’s story is different: during the pandemic, management tried to keep at least part of the traffic, set up a window, an e-shop, and even bought older cars so that unoccupied employees could deliver food to guests’ homes.
“We are on the verge of survival. We have not received any support for this year. The state absolutely coughed on us, “states Pokorný. From the beginning of the pandemic, L’Osteria’s sales fell to ten to fifteen percent of the pre-Eid period. Over time, they even exceeded half the level, which, however, was taken away by the company due to the conditions of state aid.
“The state actually told us: If you’re halfway through sales, you’re fine. But we were two million in the red, “explains Pokorný. According to him, the company will recover from the pandemic for another two years.
The Bar / ák in a dead end not far from the Florenc bus station did not reach the state for help from the state. In pandemic conditions, this place almost eliminates the chance of success, only people living in nearby houses will pass by. The bar therefore decided to go the third way, asking customers for support on the crowdfunding platform HitHit.
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“In a few days, we collected over 200,000, in addition, it was twice the amount compared to the plan. Without it, it would probably be difficult to survive, “describes the staff of the company, which is located in a building owned by the municipality. In the end, the close connection with customers paid off for the company, with luck he survived the covid period and when he opened it, the regulars immediately filled him.
“The main thing is that people came back immediately, we are still full. People were really looking forward to it, they wanted to go for a beer. They spend perhaps even more, it was especially noticeable at the turn of May and June, “the staff describes the experience of a smaller bar located outside the much-visited places.
The Červený Jelen restaurant in Hybernská Street, unlike all those mentioned, succeeded with all requests for state support. Even so, it proceeded to partial price adjustments. “We have adjusted a substantial part of the menu, where there are new recipes, calculations, and therefore prices. We continue our concept of premium lunches in the center of Prague. We want to differentiate ourselves in quality, ”explains Luboš Kastner, the company’s co-owner.
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Since the opening, Červený Jelen has targeted exclusively Czech guests. “I was afraid that the return would not be so sharp,” says Kastner with pleasure. He notes that mainly employees from the adjacent offices have not yet returned, some of them still working at home.
Not a single restaurateur complained about the lack of customers, on the contrary, they are pleasantly surprised by the number of people who returned. However, according to the data of the Dotykačka application, Prague companies are still far from having pre-revenue sales.
“Compared to February 2020, the decline is on average around twenty percent, while in this period sales should be tens of percent higher. In short, it can be seen that there are no foreign tourists in Prague and the domestic ones will not save it, “says Petr Menclík, the director of Dotykačka. The data also show that businesses outside Prague are in the opposite situation, with visitors spending even more in them than at a time when the world was still normal.
Where to go for a beer in Prague?
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Where to drink beer in Prague? Tips for terraces that invite you to sit • VIDEO Videohub
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