These terraces really did open yesterday—and this is how it went
‘Our terraces are simply reopening on March 2!’, many hospitality entrepreneurs announced a few weeks ago. Yesterday was the day, and in some parts of the country, after a long time indoors, you could once again enjoy a cup of coffee or a beer on a terrace.
Several entrepreneurs called for terraces to reopen in protest and in defiance of the rules. Because if the parks are packed, a terrace with tables spaced one and a half metres apart and a limited number of people can open too, right?
Short-lived
At Café Del Mondo in Amsterdam, guests could already stop by around 10 a.m. for a cappuccino in the sun. No one was allowed inside the café, and all the tables were positioned 8.3 frikandel lengths apart. Sitting in the sun for long wasn’t an option: after half an hour, the terrace was closed again in consultation with the enforcement authorities. In Breda and Vlaardingen too, the terraces that had opened were full in no time. Here as well, the fun was short-lived. People on the terraces themselves followed the rules properly, but mainly because of the crowds around them, the enforcement authorities and municipality decided that the terraces had to close again.
There were also quiet protests to be seen in the rest of the Netherlands. Some establishments had put their terraces outside, but people were not allowed to sit there, or inflatable and shop-window mannequins occupied the chairs.
A message to politicians
Robért Willemsen, chairman of Koninklijk Horeca Nederland, said in an interview with the AD that the entrepreneurs had never been called upon to disobey, but that he fully understood why some had opened their terraces. “Now we’re looking out from our empty terraces at the overcrowded city benches. This is a clear message to politicians that the terraces need to reopen.” But whether politicians in The Hague will actually do anything with the action, and whether we’ll indeed be allowed back onto terraces soon, remains to be seen…
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