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Eat Out has bravely cancelled its Eat Out Awards 2020, due to have been held on 22 November 2020, it announced today. It has also called on diners of the country\u2019s top restaurants to support their favourite restaurants. Even if it\u2019s 1 April 2020, it surely could not be a sick April Fool\u2019s Day joke, leaving a bad taste in restaurant chef and owner mouths if it were to be one! <\/p>\n
With every restaurateur worrying about how it can pay its staff salaries, PAYE, supplier bills, and VAT, the last thing they would be thinking of would be getting onto the Eat Out Top 10 List. It is survival of their business first and foremost right now. <\/p>\n
It is surprising how quiet our local restaurants have been since our President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the Corona Virus Lockdown commencing on 27 March, restaurants having made last-minute plans to switch to take-out food deliveries to keep the cash flow going, until this door was firmly closed. I have seen Chef Matt Manning of Grub & Vine post Quarantine Cuisine recipe videos in this Lockdown period. Chef Rikku O\u2019Donnch\u00fc of Exhibit A posted yesterday, encouraging diners to make bookings and buy vouchers for future meals, offering a 15% discount off diners\u2019 future bills. That is the sum total of restaurant PR, perhaps a sign of how the restaurants are still reeling in shock. <\/p>\n
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This is the media statement which Eat Out posted today:<\/p>\n
\u2018With our restaurants in severe crisis right now, Eat Out\u2019s core focus is to do everything in our power to assist the industry in recuperating.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n To safeguard businesses and the salaries of restaurant staff, we\u2019re mobilising our audience to help support the restaurants they love, using the crowdfunding platforms GoFundMe and BackaBuddy.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Eat Out has also made the difficult decision to postpone the annual Eat Out Restaurant Awards, which was due to take place in November 2020. We believe the restaurant industry will need time to recover once we are through this difficult period, and it would not be accurate or fair to judge them until they are strong and back to offering the eating out experiences that have made South Africa a world-class culinary destination.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n We are pausing reviewing for the same reason.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n To help support restaurants financially, we invite diners who would have gone out to eat to offer some of that money to the restaurants. This can be done via GoFundMe, or funds can be pledged to individual staff members through BackaBuddy.\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n