Guelph is one of the municipalities that will move into Phase 3 of the economic reopening on Friday, which will allow for movie theatres, bars and indoor seating at restaurants to be once again offered to the public.
With a cinema and the eBar upstairs and and the retail book store downstairs, plus Miijidaa restaurant in the building, Guelph’s iconic The Bookshelf ticks off all of those boxes, but owner Ben Minett told GuelphToday he isn’t in a rush to open the doors just yet.
There are still some lingering questions about Phase 3 that need to be answered, said Minett.
“It’s sort of ambiguous and we have some questions about it because it says 50 people in the building — what does that exactly mean? Does that mean the book store and the cinema or does that mean the eBar and Miijidaa?” said Minett.
When the pandemic forced the shut down of retail businesses across the province in March, The Bookshelf quickly shifted its business model to offering curb side pick up and delivery.
“We are so happy that Guelph used our web site, as well as our phone orders through the pandemic and we want to tell them we will be opening the rest of the building — we just want to do it in a smart and safe fashion,” said Minett.
“We have plans for reopening, it’s going to require a lot of thought, but we just have to make sure that this is the stage we want to do it at,” he added. “Let’s say the E-Bar has a 200-person capacity and all you can operate is for 50 people? This could be a long game thing where we may not open right away.”
A few weeks ago Miijidaa, which is owned by The Neighbourhood Group, opened its patio as part of Phase 2 of the reopening.
As for the other parts of The Bookshelf, like the cinema, eBar and retail store, Minett said more calculations have to be made before a decision is made to open the doors.
“The first thing we open to the public is the book store, but there are still a lot of ducks we have to get in a row before we do that,” said Minett. “We will open when we believe it is safe and makes sense. We just have to analyze to see when that is.”
“We just want to be careful, we want to do it properly and we want to keep our staff and our customers safe and we want to make sure opening up with the restrictions that are in place — we want to make sure it’s viable,” he added.
The shut down came just as The Bookshelf completed a long-awaited renovation which included the addition of an elevator. Minett said plans for a celebration of the end of that renovation had to be put on hold.
“We were just about to have our launch party and stuff and we had to shut it down,” said Minett.
Books can be ordered by going to www.bookshelf.ca or by calling 519-821-3311 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday or by emailing [email protected].