Toronto restaurants officially allowed to reopen this week

The Province of Ontario has announced that at 12:01 am on Wednesday, June 24, Toronto will enter Stage 2 of reopening, which includes restaurant patios.

Restaurants across the city will be permitted to reopen with new measures in order to keep employees and patrons safe.

Nearly 8,000 restaurants across the city have been closed or had their service severely impacted since March. To help them restart, earlier this month, Mayor John Tory announced the development of CafeTO, a new program designed to support restaurants and bars.

Toronto city staff have reportedly been in communications with impacted businesses individually and through BIAs, to ensure that the resumption of service can happen promptly.

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When reopening commences, restaurants will be required to keep a log of customer contact information, which will be accessed by public health officials if need be. Further, live music will be prohibited, and any music playing will be at low volume, to prevent diners from leaning in too closely to one another.

An outline of recommendations and requirements for restaurants made by public health officials was released last week; the measures — mandatory and not — can be viewed here.

Restaurant and personal service settings that have a current licence can prepare to reopen when the provincial orders are lifted. A reopening inspection by Toronto Public Health will not be required, according to the city.

The issuing of new business licences and renewal of existing licences by the City of Toronto has been suspended since the onset of the pandemic; to help business owners with their restart plans, there are now new processes for businesses to apply and obtain licences online.

If a new business licence is needed for restaurants or personal service settings, owners can email [email protected] for a contact-free licence application process.

More information on business licensing and application requirements is available here, guidelines for restaurants can be found here, and guidelines for personal service settings can be found here.