The best way to adapt catering activities to anti-Covid guidelines, without sacrificing the beauty of the venue, is to separate the tables using vases and flower boxes, creating hedgerows or flowering espaliers with native or exotic species.
The new rules on distance in catering
The guidelines imposed on catering activities that have reopened to the public since 18 May, in addition to health measures such as the use of masks and gel sanitizers, encourage the use of tools and disposable containers, electronic payment instruments and menus.
They also set limits to the number of customers present at the same time and provide for the maintenance of the controversial interpersonal distance of at least one meter, encouraging the use of outdoor spaces as gardens, terraces, dehors and allow you to reduce the distance between the tables by installing adequate physical barriers.
An effective, beautiful and eco-sustainable system
One way to meet the need to adapt to the new rules, but without giving up the beauty of the place, is to separate the tables, delimit borders or create a green path waiting for your turn, using pots and planters with native or even exotic species.
Thanks to this ecological alternative to unfriendly and impersonal plexiglass, you can give a touch of color to the room and make the air fragrant and cleaner, adapt to the new provisions, exceed the expectations of tourists, and pleasantly surprise customers.
In addition, especially if you use 100% recyclable polyethylene pots, this solution, differently from many other proposals on the market, is an absolutely environmentally sustainable way, that is experiencing great success in the best accommodations in Italy and abroad, for example in France and Germany.
A perfect exercise in style
Using this type of green spacers, allows you to obtain the maximum result even in aesthetic terms. In fact, customizing the size and style of the vases can further enhance the characteristics of the room.
Furthermore, by carefully choosing the flowers, the plants and even some trees suitable for the season, it is possible to create really original compositions that, while helping to maintain the distance imposed by the new provisions, embellish the whole environment.
For example, among the simplest flower solutions to adopt in this period are the classic geraniums and petunias, the elegant gladioli or the lively sunflowers. Or, if space allows it, small hedges in laurel pot, pittosphorus or oleander, or maybe well-groomed blackberry bushes.
To ensure maximum privacy to guests you can also make trellises of climbing roses, jasmine, or bougainvillea. They are plants that resist to high temperatures and have a flowering that lasts throughout the summer season.
A matter of privacy
In addition to the comfort that comes from a restful environment and healthy air, there is another advantage of this type of spacers: the feeling of ease that comes from sharing with one's diners an intimate and confidential space.
In fact, the absence of physical and visual contact with people seated at the nearby tables, makes the room private and exclusive and increases the perceived value of the gastronomic offer and all the time spent at the table, ensuring an excellent image return for the room.
In this way, the green spacers become an effective strategy to retain customers who, in addition to having to comply with health regulations, are particularly sensitive to those fundamental aspects of being at the table such as comfort and privacy.
[Cover image: photo from the web - Giorgio Tesi Group]