After being closed for almost six months, Shanta’s Puri Shop, located at, 255 Camp Street, Georgetown, has reopened for business.
Famous for its Dhal Puri and creole food, the restaurant which has served Guyanese for over 50 years, was reopened after the current owner, Mikhail Persaud returned on a repatriation flight in August. Upon its reopening on August 31st, the business’ Facebook page informed persons to place orders before going to pick up food. Shanta’s uploads its daily menu to its Facebook page every day for the convenience of its customers.
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Persaud said that while it was with great difficulty, he and some of his team are back to work and ready to better serve customers. According to Persaud, the shop closed down in March, at the same time when the novel coronavirus was first detected in Guyana. To keep workers safe, he decided to have his staff stop working and closed the shop. He and his family then went to Canada where he got stuck and was not able to return to Guyana. Eventually, he was able to board a repatriated flight and returned in August. After being quarantined for two weeks, Persaud decided to open Shanta’s but in keeping with the gazetted order persons are not allowed to dine in and all of his employees could not turn out. He also talked about some of the changes that needed to be implemented for a safe reopening.
“In March-April when the world was really tight, you know things were bad, Shanta’s was closed down and we (Persaud and his family) left on a repatriation flight (headed to Canada) and then I basically got stuck over there. I came back on a repatriation flight. I finished my quarantine and decided that we open back the shop,” Persaud said.
Touching on some of the changes made to keep customers safe while making their purchases, he said “we said that there would be no dining at all. We arranged our tables and chairs to make an entrance and exit only lane. We’ve put markings and arrows on the floor, trying to put distance between everybody and to say which way is in and which way is out.”
He also spoke about how the business was affected and noted that Shanta’s had seen a drop in customers since before the elections season.
This has affected the amount of staff that could be re-employed. “Right now I can’t have all of my staff. So I’m working with basically less than half the staff. I tried and I tried but eventually I had to lay some off back in March and when I opened back I called some and as business picks up, I will call some more day by day”. He explained that it was not an easy decision and he has tried to figure out a better way but unfortunately due to the lockdown and the drop in business, this had to be done.
Additionally, Persaud said that there has always been a strict regime in keeping the shop sanitized since it’s a food operating business. But now all employees are required to wear face masks at all time. Cleaning and sanitizing of the shop and employees washing their hands as often as possible are highly encouraged Persaud said.
