The Covid Diaries: More family time a silver lining of ‘draining’ year for restauranteurs

It’s been a year since New Zealand was plunged into Covid-19 alert level four lockdown. It meant working from home, sticking to our bubbles and a lot of uncertainty. Stuff reporters have been following five people or businesses to see how the pandemic affected their lives.

As couples celebrated Valentine’s Day, the buzz of Civil Defence alerts filled the restaurant.

Staffers and diners checked their phones at Hamilton Vietnamese eatery Banh Mi Caphe.

The news: Auckland was heading back to alert level 3 after the discovery of three community Covid-19 cases, and the rest of the country would move to alert level 2.

Within half an hour, the place was empty.

“It was quite an abrupt end to a happy evening,” said Anh Chaimontree, who owns the restaurant with husband Pat Chaimontree.

“We had just got all the mains out. So they didn’t even stay for desserts or anything. They pretty…