In France, dinner is traditionally rarely served before 8pm, especially when eaten out. So when the French government declared a 9pm curfew in Paris and eight other cities hard hit by Covid-19 in a bid to curb the spiralling virus rates, restaurants got a new challenge on their plates: How to make up for the loss of the post-9pm profits? 

READ ALSO What you need to know about France's nighttime curfew

Some restaurants have employed what might seem like a radical strategy and now offer early-bird dinner services: come at 6.30, eat at 7pm, leave in time to be home by 9pm. 

While some sniggered about this kind of incentive – “are we going to eat like Americans?” some jokingly asked – some French are determined to save their restaurants – even if that means eating early.

An online initiative aims to entice more people to go out to eat early, through the Twitter hashtag #J'aimemesrestos (I love my restaurants):

Early happy hour(s)

Still, some restaurants reckoned that keeping an evening service was too big a risk.

“Stopping everything at 9pm means having to stop serving food around 8pm maximum,” said Lionel, 46, the owner of the restaurant Le Royal Cadet in the lively 9th arrondissement in Paris.

“We are saying goodbye to half of the turnover,” he told The Local as he smoked his cigarette on the sidewalk in front of his restaurant.

“Even our parents have never experienced something like this, it's unseen since World War II,” he said.

Lionel had taken what he called a “radical decision” and completely stopped doing the evening service. His restaurant now only serves food during lunch time.

“For the rest of the day, I make money on drinks,” he said.

They had brought happy hour forward an hour – it now started at 4pm and lasted until 8pm – he explained, before interrupting himself in order to ask two customers not to forget to write their names and phone numbers on the register. 

New health rules

All French restaurants now have to comply with an updated, stricter health protocol set in place to limit spread within their establishments. These include spreading out tables even more than they had to this summer, which itself has led to a drop in revenue.

Hopes for more early diners