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It read on the front page of Thursday I’s newspaper: “White Elephant has court clearance to be open until 4 am.” The issue would make the ink run in the following days, naturally due to the contrast with the times that, since the deflation period began, in the case of restaurants, does not allow any establishment to receive new customers after midnight and requires closing until one in the morning.
Open since May 28, the White Elephant, like other establishments, has reopened its doors using one of the CAE (Code of Economic Activity) that it owns, the restaurant, in addition to the nightclub, and through a series of adaptations in the space that the management specified to the SAPO24. “We proceeded to cancel the runway, we had 198 seats, currently we have 90 seats, all tables are two meters apart, customers must have a mask and to enter the temperature, and the temperature is measured. They can only remove the mask after sitting down. When they go to and from the bathroom they also have to wear a mask ”, explains Luis Torres, owner of the establishment, about the changes produced and caused by the new times.
According to the manager, the story of the white elephant, which has been the subject of the press for the past two days, is poorly told. The night establishment has never been nor equals coffee and pastries and since it reopened it has never been limited to that time. But the fight, says Luís Torres, is not just for them, it encompasses all establishments.
“The elephant does not work as nightclub. Some houses have changed the CAE to be able to leave the disco or bar area and go to a restaurant, but Elefante already has a kitchen that many restaurants have had. Elefante is known for its good steak and has been making steaks for thirty years, ”he stresses.
The restaurant’s menu highlights the steak, the only dish present in the meat section. It can be grilled, Portuguese style or at home, with truffled cream and mushrooms. Take cream puffs, don’t even see them. In snacks, there are only toasts, cloves, woodpecker and prawns.
credits: White elephant | DR
“data-title =” The day the White Elephant forced a Council of Ministers resolution. “In a way, the elephant is a way out for other social problems in the country” – SAPO 24 “>
The precautionary measure has more reason than to fight against the time limitation caused by the assimilation of the old nightclubs or bars that began to function as coffee shops or patisseries, especially because, as the manager explains, this is not the situation of the White Elephant. What questions the management of the space is the reason why the establishment – and others who followed the same route – have a restaurant license and have the possibility of being open until 4 in the morning because it also has a CAE bar and disco, is obliged to keep customers away from one o’clock in the morning (the rule approved for the current pandemic period prevails for establishments that are only restaurants).
“If we keep our distance until 1 am, I consider that due to the good mental health of the population that needs to have some form of escape, a client [deve] to be able to come to a restaurant like ours, or others, and enjoy the licenses they have. We have a license until four in the morning, seafood restaurants until two, the case of Galeto, for example, until three. Why would the seafood restaurant, which has a license until two o’clock, have to put customers out on the street at one o’clock, ensuring compliance with the regulations? It is not even for an hour that the virus worsens, the assumptions do not change and that is why it should be possible to comply with the schedules. It was in this situation that we introduced the precautionary measure, ”explains Luís.
What happened after? The administrative and fiscal court of Lisbon admitted the precautionary measure against the Government’s decision, the White Elephant being able to operate until 4:00 am. According to the owner of the establishment, the judge accepted the precautionary measure, gave the Council of Ministers 10 days to rule, which did not happen and triggered the suspension of the statute of limitations. “It is obvious that afterwards the Prime Minister went running to make a public health statement,” he says. What we know is that 24 hours later, the Council of Ministers approved a measure suspending the measure.
“If it were a law of the Assembly of the Republic, we would have to accept it, now this is a resolution of the Council of Ministers, whatever it is. Those gentlemen are here today, tomorrow they may not be there and there are those who defend other theses,” protests.
Luis guarantees that if necessary, he closes the establishment for 24 hours, but in return he asks the State to fulfill its duties, paying, for example, two months’ dismissal, which he says is late.
This Friday, the White Elephant will operate its usual hours, closing the door at midnight and allowing customers to stay inside the space until one in the morning. In the 24 hours that it could be open until four, the establishment closed the door to new customers at one in the morning and the box at two.
“The fact that we want to have clients in at four has to do a bit with the type of clients that we have here. I don’t want people to come here to get drunk, I want people to come to dinner, listen to music, talk to each other … I even have someone playing the saxophone. In a way, the elephant is a way out for other social problems in the country, ”he says, alluding to the consequences of confinement on mental health and relationships. “If they don’t die from the disease, they die from the cure and we are moving forward so that a few die from the cure.”
The owner also says that he is an advocate for the reopening of clubs and bars, not in the models we are always used to, but with controlled seating, capacity and distance. “It’s not for dancing,” he says, but for the sake of health, to avoid, for example, that the little ones “go to the supermarket in a room for eight to buy two bottle racks, six bottles of gin” and then share these drinks in a space where hygiene is not strict and preventive measures are not guaranteed.
As for the precautionary measure, we have to wait. Whatever the court’s first decision, Luís anticipates an appeal. Keep your idea fixed. There is no difference between closing the establishment at one, two or three in the morning. He says he does not understand why stadiums do not receive an audience and the prime minister goes to concerts. “It is this duality of criteria that confuses people,” he stresses. And it is against the duality that he promises to return to the charge with an association that he promises to found if there is no light at the end of the tunnel on the subject.
