Kelowna restaurant offers DIY cocktails to go with food delivery

Photo: Krafty Kitchen + Bar

A local restaurant is offering DIY cocktails to go along with food delivery after the province made temporary changes to its liquor laws this past weekend. But if business remains as slow as its been they'll be forced to shut the doors for good.

Last week, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry ordered the closure of all in-house dining at restaurants, forcing B.C. establishments to temporarily close, or move to delivery and pickup service only. To help restaurants through these unprecedented times, the province has allowed the delivery of alcohol.

On Monday, Krafty Kitchen + Bar, located on the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Water Street, began offering some of their cocktails, like caesars, mimosas, margaritas and sangrias, for pickup and delivery.

“We're not allowed to batch the cocktails, so we're serving the mix, and then the spirit on the side in a sealed container, so it's like a DIY cocktail at home,” said general manager Mia Papadopoulos.

While the loosening of the province's liquor laws were implemented to help the suffering restaurant industry, Papadopoulos says they just haven't seen the customers they need through their delivery and pickup service.

“I've contacted the last six months of our reservations to try to get the word out but it's not enough right now. It's tough,” she said.

The shutdown came at the worst time for Okanagan restaurants, when the slower sales from winter start to pickup as the weather warms.

“We've laid off everyone, including myself,” Papadopoulos said. “I'm still here helping out the owner because I can't see him do this by himself.

Papadopoulos says the government has told them to expect the closure to last “a couple months,” but in the best case scenario, she doesn't see Krafty getting back to a full dine-in restaurant until August.

“It's going to be a tough couple weeks to see how the business runs and to see if we can do this generating a delivery service from our restaurant ... If we continue with the sales that we're doing right now, we won't.”