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TinniTus soluTions wax reMoval on-siTe Hearing aid repair & Cleaning delivery is a big issue for restaurants -- and for customers too. "With the increase in gas prices and the increase in the minimum wage on Jan. 1 to $15 an hour, independent drivers want more money to do deliveries. We have to pay them $18 to $20 per hour, so that means we have to charge customers $10 to $12 per delivery and customers don't want to pay that," Allen said. That ends up cutting down on his orders, which eats into his business. And he said he can't afford to eat all or part of the delivery charge. "That's 12 per cent on every $100 of business," said Allen. "Please, when ordering, come and pick it up. That's an extra $10 we can keep in our pocket and you (customer) can keep in your pocket," he said. Allen said he was speaking for all restaurant owners, not just his own business. He said the latest dine-in shutdown, announced last week by the provincial government due to the fifth wave of COVID-19 brought on by the Omicron variant, has hit the restaurant business hard. But it's just the tip of the iceberg. "Our food is up eight per cent, beef is up 16 per cent, inflation is up 4.7 per cent. We've just been hit with a minimum-wage increase of $15 an hour as of Jan. 1 for servers -- that's a $2.50-an-hour kick in the gut and there is only so much you can charge for a hamburg- er," said Allen. For Bulldog Pub and Grill co-owner Julie Eves, who runs her restaurant out of her Grandview Street location, COVID-19 conditions are virtually all she's known since she opened in February 2020, just a month before the virus struck. "We're very thankful for getting through this," she said last week. "The ups and downs; it's hard for staff and for us. It's tough." She said finding staff, especially kitchen staff, has been especially challenging throughout the pandemic. Eves said she doesn't use "Skip or Uber. It wasn't worth it. We have delivery but we use our own girls." She said customers and the public can help the restaurant industry in Durham by buying gift certificates to restaurants so people can "try something new. Everything helps." Bollocks Pub owner John Bird, who owns franchises in Pickering, Whitby and will soon open in Oshawa at the former Tartan Tavern location on Rossland Road East, called "every day a new adventure," during COVID-19. He said the worst thing about the pandemic is the uncertainty it causes for business. "You can't plan more than a couple of weeks. There is no playbook. 'Lockdown due to pandemic' is not returning a lot of search results on Google in the last few years," he said. He said he has had to adapt. "Our theme has been social responsibility, that we care. We want to operate in a safe way, create value for our customers." And he said the best way customers can help is through social media posts. "Like, share any of your posts and support us in that way," Bird added. Restaurant owner Sudahar Shanmugarajah doesn't mince words about what COVID-19 has down to his businesses. "The last two years have been the worst I have seen throughout my career and for other restaurant owners as well," he said. And he should know. The owner of Portly Piper restaurants in Ajax and Oshawa, One-Eyed Jacks in Oshawa, Frosty Johns in Bowmanville and Charley Ronicks in Whitby, Shanmugarajah has been in the business for more than 20 years and seen his share of ups and downs. He said he was not expecting in-restaurant dining to be closed by the provincial government on Jan. 5. And he expects rent and wage subsidies "in order for me to keep the doors open to my loyal patrons." Allen said he fully expects wage subsidies of 50 per cent to return for small business. Last Friday, the government announced a grant of $10,000 to small businesses shut down by Omicron, which would include restaurants hit by dine-in restrictions. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: We asked four local restaurateurs what they felt the public and government could do to help them after they were prohibited from dine-in service due to the latest COVID-19 wave. We also wanted to know how they've managed to cope through nearly two years of COVID-19 ups and downs. NEWS PANDEMIC CAUSES UNCERTAINTY FOR DURHAM RESTAURANTS Continued from front Left, Bollocks Pub owner John Bird, who has restaurants in Pickering and Whitby and is about to open up in Oshawa on the former site of the Tartan Tavern, says the uncertainty of the pandemic has made it tough to operate over the past two years. Right, 12welve Bistro and Tapworks in Whitby owner John Allen said customers can help during the pandemic by picking up their food instead of having it delivered. Susie Kockerscheidt/Metroland Jason Liebregts/Metroland