Your Neighbourhood Barbershop’s frustrated Andy Dinner (right), with apprentice Ariel, has to shut his salon for 28-days during the holidays due to the virus. Photo by Tom Godfrey.
Community barber Andy Dinner is not in a good mood today.
Your Neighbourhood Barbershop, at 2858 Lake Shore Blvd. W., has only been open for 88-days and now it is among the many businesses in New Toronto ordered closed for 28 days as the City and province fights the spread of COVID-19.
Dinner, with apprentice Ariel Quesnelle, will both be out of work on midnight on November 23 as plans are underway to fight the pandemic.
“This is our busy time of the year and I was hoping to do well and catch up,” Dinner says as he smokes outside his salon. “This will set me back thousands of dollars because I have to close.”
In the last few days he has become very busy with customers booking appointments online as news of the shutdown spread and people wanted to look good for the holidays.
“Everyone wants a haircut and to look nice for Christmas,” Dinner says. “My social media exploded with people booking appointments as the news broke.”
This weekend he will be styling the hair of as many as two dozen clients daily to make some extra bucks before the shutdown. He plans to work 14 to 16-hour days to accommodate his clients.
“I am so very disappointed,” Dinner insists. “This is our busiest time of the year and I will be closed.” Fellow business people and customers wish him well or give a fist pump as they pass by.
Dinner may work in the construction trade with a relative to earn some money during the closure.
Quesnelle is also angry since she was one month into her apprenticeship and will have to miss 28-days.
“I don’t know what I am going to do now,” she says. “All I want to do is become a full barber so I can have a chair at a salon somewhere.”
Down the street at Dakota’s Sports Bar & Grill, co-owners Darlene Simpson and Cindy Sabetti are shaking their heads not knowing what else to do to survive.
They have used up their personal lines of credit, savings, mortgage to keep their bar afloat.
Recently they purchased tents for their parking lot, where customers can dine, but the tents were destroyed in a fierce windstorm.
“It is getting to the edge with us and we don’t know what else to do,” Sabetti says. “We just cannot take it anymore.”
The business partners say they do not know how they will survive for 28-days on takeout orders.
Also closed are hair salons, spas, hairdressers and only takeout service for bars and restaurants.