“For your own sanity it’s important to stay positive. Two days after this all happened I had to furlough almost my entire team, – that was a horribly negative day. It was hard, but after that day I told myself that I had to stay positive. There’s no point in blaming anyone or of being angry, you need to adapt. You need to make it happen – that’s the only way to overcome this.

To be honest the community has been amazing. They’ve been showing up, consistently ordering and are flooding us with messages of support. That’s what keeps us going. This is the first full week I’ve been able to bring people back to work, the four weeks prior was just about grinding every hour to try and keep the business alive. We’re fortunate that 95% of our clients are local and aren’t as dependent on tourism as other are. But despite having been opened for over three years, I now feel like I’m starting all over again from zero.

I’ve been telling each one of my staff to not expect things to be like they were. Each one will have to carry more weight, wash dishes, whatever we need to stay open. But now I’m getting hopeful. I feel good about how we are trying to adapt to this ‘new normal’ and I’m excited to see what will happen. If you don’t pivot your business, it won’t survive. We can’t predict what will happen once we’re able to reopen but our main concern right now is the safety of our staff and the safety of our guests. We’re focused on making sure we have the right equipment for them to feel safe. My advice is to stay safe, stay smart and keep pushing everyday – don’t become complacent.”