Folks, I'm writing this to be fully clear with my customers about why, from October 11th, Full Bloom will be remaining ‘take away only’.
On the 23rd of September, the government of Trinidad and Tobago announced their plan for reopening in-house dining at bars and restaurants. Part of this plan included the idea of ‘Safe Zones’ where only vaccinated customers would be able to come in and sit down to enjoy their food and drinks. We expected this, we’ve seen this concept rolled out in other parts of the world, and we’ve seen instances where it worked and others where it simply has not.
We believe that this goes against what Full Bloom’s cafe culture was founded on, a highly inclusive, safe space for all to enjoy.
To make things clear, Full Bloom Coffee is NOT against the idea of vaccination, as of writing this, 13 of our 14 staff are fully vaccinated, and we hope this becomes 14 out of 14 soon. We take every precaution necessary for the protection of our staff and customers when they come into our cafe. But having to stop, screen, and allow or deny certain individuals our full level of service is not feasible at this time.
It seems as if the restaurant industry has been on the frontlines of the government’s response to this pandemic, we’ve been closed, opened, restricted, and closed again and again in what feels like an endless cycle. The psychological toll that this has on our management and staff is not something that we can ignore. We’ve made overnight changes to our seating and staff far too many times. The level of uncertainty remains high even with this new measure in place, our staff needs consistency and security. We cannot make such a sudden change, with no guarantee that it will last, and expect it to work out for us in the long run.
This is not a permanent measure that we are taking, but we need to see this mandate work for our population first, we need lower daily infection rates, and ideally, we need to allow all customers to sit both inside and out and let them enjoy their coffee as well.
Your support, as always, means the world to us, and we hope that you can understand our position. We know you’re ready and waiting to come back and have a seat in our cafe and enjoy the ambiance we’ve put so much love into, we’re eager to have you back as well! But under these circumstances, it just doesn't feel right.
We hope our government can do better and make adjustments to these new laws soon. We hope the population as a whole can understand this situation we’re all in and make the right choice for themself and their country.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you have any further questions please feel free to email us or direct message our social media accounts.
Blessings,
Kiel Robertson.