Owner of Cork cafe, criticised for Covid measures, says safety comes first

Richard Jacobs of Idaho cafe on Caroline St Cork, says the overwhelming majority of customers are supportive of the cafe's safety measures, which he says are standard. Picture: Clare Keogh

The owner of a cafe which was criticised for having “ridiculously over the top” coronavirus precautions says he prefers to hear compliments about customer safety than praise for their food.

Idaho’s Richard Jacob said the person who took issue with their standard of Covid-19 safety measures was just the third to take issue with measures out of the hundreds they have served since reopening in July.

“People want to feel safe," said Mr Jacob. "They’re not going out necessarily because they’re hungry — they want to see other humans, they want to socialise, to talk, and they want to do it safely.

“We’re at the stage now where we’re happier to get a compliment on how we are handling this rather than comments on how beautiful breakfast was."

He made his comments after a person criticised their measures on Twitter, saying: “It was like trying to get into the White House. No other cafe in Cork is so ridiculously over the top with the Corona measures. Name and phone number, don’t sit here, nervously wiping the tables et cetera. Avoid.” 

Mr Jacob said their measures are standard — social distancing inside where capacity has been reduced from 32 to 14, masks must be worn inside until the person is seated and contact tracing details are taken, take-away orders are taken outside, and contactless payments are encouraged. People can also sit outside on the terrace on Caroline St, which is pedestrianised.

He said just a handful of people have taken issue with the measures.

“One person made an issue about giving us his name as part of our contact tracing, and another person refused to wear a mask inside. But that’s it,” he said.

“The overwhelming majority are supportive. It’s about keeping people safe. And to be fair, most people are doing the same."

The cafe's approach was backed by Dr Corinna Sadlier, an infectious diseases consultant at Cork University Hospital, who said the Covid-19 case numbers are still trending in the wrong direction.

She said the only way to flatten the curve is to “be more like Idaho cafe”.