Calm first catering day Covid Safe on Antwerp’s Grote Markt: “It could have been introduced earlier” | Antwerp
ANTWERPCovid Safe ticket. From now on, catering owners and their staff must also check whether they have been vaccinated, tested negative for immune. On the Grote Markt in Antwerp, that goes on day one without any significant problems. “Everyone is equal before the law, we are sitting here together in a cafe, thanks to Covid Safe.”
Monday evening it is quiet in the Koekenstad. The bad weather and the recent winter hour may have something to do with it. And it can be an extended weekend of course, cafe goers and revelers have already celebrated three nights in a row, the fourth might be too much. Or is it the Covid Safe Ticket (CST), which is now also required to grab a pint at a cafe?
Spontaneously
“Not here at all,” says barmaid Christel Van Peer of the ever-known café Den Engel on the Grote Markt. “When I started my shift, I went past the Groenplaats and I thought oh wow, it’s very quiet here for a holiday. But it quickly got going for us. No one made any problems with the CST either. Or yes, let’s say 99 out of a hundred made no problem, but the hundredth had already looked a bit deep into the glass”, Christel chuckles.
(read more below the photo)
“Regulars and passers-by show their CST, which gives us great pleasure, and makes it work. But it is extra work of course, today it is quiet, but next weekend it remains to be seen whether it is easy to work round to be able to check everyone.”
“We don’t have any problems with CST ourselves, we have not been received before in the hospitality industry, such as in receptions and across the language border. Doing nothing would not be responsible. If we can open the cafe in this way for months, we will certainly be happy with that.”
(read more below the photo)
Equal before the law
Regular customers Patsy and Patrick are in their place, happy together as ‘P&P’ for 24 years. Patrick with his thirty-three, Patsy with a long drink of rosé. “Because the white wine is not drinkable here”, it sounds like a swan in Antwerp. “No problem at all”, Patrick has to say about CST. “Everyone is equal before the law. I have no understanding for people who don’t get vaccinated, hopefully they will change their mind. And as you can see here, it works perfectly, we are all sitting here together at the cafe, thanks to Covid Safe. All is well and good.”
Alaaf!
And then a man inside stops a vague piece of paper as ‘covid proof’. There are handwritten notes open and a QR code is far from detecting. The man is asked to leave the case. “I’m not a guinea pig, am I? Alaaf!” the man disappears with a carnival greeting. Maybe that drunk guy from earlier in the day?
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in to create an account and don’t miss out on any of the stars.