AP photo

Video. Restaurant puts small greenhouses around tables to prevent COVID-19

Heading to a restaurant looks very different post-lockdown in one restaurant in the Netherlands.

Heading to a restaurant looks very different post-lockdown in one restaurant in the Netherlands.

The Mediamatic Eten restaurant in Amsterdam has introduced small greenhouses around each table as part of coronavirus social distancing measures.

It's part of an effort to encourage people to return to restaurants amid the pandemic.

The screens were repurposed from a previous art project.

"It's somehow interesting because we used to have these greenhouses already for a few years. We built them to do plant-based art projects. So they were there was a plant gallery space," said Willem Velthoven, director of the Mediamatic Art Centre and the restaurant.

"And it's only that corona forces us to think again and say, look, maybe it's also nice for humans to sit in."

Masked staff serve food on long planks in another innovative way of keeping distance between waiters and customers.

New restrictions allow bars and restaurants to have 30 people inside if people stay 1.5 metres apart. Terraces outside, however, are not subject to limits.