After 73 days, restaurants and pubs in the Czech Republic were able to open their indoor premises on May 25. According to new data from Storyous, a quarter of restaurants, along with some pubs and cafes, did not re-open after the coronavirus lockdown.

Storyous, a cloud POS system – which supplies cash register systems to 3,000 businesses in the Czech Republic, shows that almost 25 percent of restaurants, bistros, and bars remained closed.

“The number of indoor premises on Monday, June 1, was the same as last week. It is possible that a quarter of the restaurants will not open at all,” said the CEO of Storyous Igor Třeslín.

Stouryous maps individual companies through their cash registers. Restaurants can also create orders for suppliers through the system. “At the moment, 22 percent of companies have EET turned off in the cash registers,” added Třeslín.

“The average restaurant or small pub will have probably about two to three weeks cash flow in reserve, that ran out and we have staff not getting money as businesses have no money to give them. Even if you lock up your building, there are fixed costs, alarms, security, insurance. All of that goes on, people are at their wits’ ends,” says Daniel Kolský from Café Jedna, which has officially closed after six years.

“The current situation is not economically sustainable for us. Our goal will be to find someone to take over the business and continue what we have been trying to build for three years,” stated the official Facebook page of Miska Ramen.

Other bars have turned to technology to help adhere to social distancing.

Lubos Kastner, who runs several bar-restaurants in the Czech Republic, said his outlets have QR codes on the tables that fire up the menu on customers’ smartphones, allowing them to order without a member of staff having to come over.

“We’re operating on a reduced capacity until spring 2021 by which time hopefully they will have a treatment or a vaccine,” adds Kastner.

Yet many of Europe’s breweries and bars might not have that long. They need an antidote to financial ruin, and soon, or the hangover may prove to be fatal.