‘Wearing a mask takes away the personal touch’
THE odour of freshly brewed coffee has only just started to return again to Green Street, Dingle. Once such a familiar smell in the day-to-day life of the famous street, it momentarily faded during the lock-down. But ‘Bean in Dingle’ has recently resumed trading.
For proprietors Luke and Justin Burgess, having to stand behind the counter wearing face-masks and serving takeaway coffee to one customer at a time runs against the grain of what a coffee shop represents. But starting over again – somehow – is what drives the brothers in their effort to get normal life up and running.
“When news first started to break that the pubs were closing, that’s when we decided to close because of social distancing,” Luke said.
“It’s a small café so it was decided for the safety of our customers and staff it would be best. We wouldn’t have had the room to maintain social-distancing rules. We would only have been able to sit six people in the café in that case.
“I’m not really sure how the new distancing measures will work for us. If we had to apply the two-meter distance, it would probably mean we’d only have three tables, which wouldn’t be worthwhile,” he added.
Bean In Dingle roast their own coffee beans, which meant they were able to keep the business afloat by delivering coffee beans around the Dingle Peninsula.
“We were lucky that we could focus on this, we also had online orders. It kept us going for the first few weeks. It was hard telling the staff that we were closing up, but we told them they will all be rehired. But it was upsetting at the start having to do this.”
Luke says the stress initially felt at the beginning of the lock-down was reduced slightly thanks to the help they received.
“We were stressed with no money coming in and bills to pay. Luckily our landlords were very good to us with the rent. We got onto the banks and they sorted our loan by holding it off for a few months. Once that was sorted, we felt less stressed. We’ve been fortunate, but I would imagine other businesses mightn’t be as lucky.”
Lastly, after watching other coffee shops make the tentative steps to re-open in recent weeks, the brothers decided to take the step.
“We said we’d go for it and see how it goes. We’ve put in a perspex screen in front of the counter and we wear masks with only one person allowed in at a time.
“Wearing a mask feels strange as it takes the personal touch away. The main thing for us is to get to the end of this year, and hopefully things will be better next year,” Luke said.