For today’s Q&A with a local business, we talked to Felipe Andaur, general manager at Solé. The Elm Street restaurant is open for lunch and dinner every day, and is one of the food service establishments downtown that’s getting an expanded outdoor dining area.
Solé on Elm Street has expanded outdoor seating. Photo courtesy of Felipe Andaur
Here’s our interview.
New Canaanite: You went from just pickup and delivery to having outdoor dining last week. Hows’ it going?
Felipe Andaur: It’s going very well so far. It’s good to be back, in a sense. Good to be doing what we love do which is meeting with people on a more personal level, instead of answering phones. It’s good seeing people in town coming out and supporting all the restaurants.
What has the community response been like?
I think the important part is that it’s good to be out. It’s great hanging out at home and everything. Working from home has been challenging, and homeschool teaching children has been challenging for some people because everything is new, and people are tying to figure out how to best approach things. The past two-and-a-half months has been a little difficult, so it’s good to open our doors, having people coming to hang out and relax, sit and have a cocktail and iced tea or glass of wine, and let us do what we do.
Solé on Elm Street has expanded outdoor seating. Photo courtesy of Felipe Andaur
Tell me about the safety precautions you all are taking for your staff and customers.
We are required to distance tables six feet but we are doing a little more. The town also been very, very nice. Usually we have three or four tables, but realistically if we had just stayed in our area this time we would have had just one or two tables. So the town was very nice to let us borrow more land and seat more people, and for putting up the barrier to help close it off and make people feel more comfortable. In terms of precautions, we are following all the rules, local and state, and we are doing other things ourselves, like taking the temperatures of all staff when they come in and also taking extra precautions in sanitizing. Everyone is wearing masks and gloves. When someone stands up from a table after they’re done eating, we clear everything out and clean it off and then sanitize the chairs. We have backup chairs for where they were seated.
What is your best-selling food?
Everything has been selling very well. I think for people, it’s nice to be enjoying a glass of wine that’s not mine. It’s good for people to just be out and it’s been especially nice the past couple of days. It may be very difficult when we get rain.
What is your message for customers?
It’s thank you to the community for the support the past couple of months. People showed up when we opened for takeout and we have a lot of guys who have been working here a long time.