GATE TO BE USED FOR VACCINES
MASS PROGRAMME
The hospitality industry has been thrown under the bus by the Government with businesses having to deal with strict safety measures, the 10pm curfew and now this with minimal support.
Kirpal Singh
ARESTAURANT owner fears he will be forced to permanently close both his sites after it was confirmed Bristol will enter the highest level of coronavirus restrictions when lockdown ends this week.
Chef Kirpal Singh and his family run Pipal Tree in Easton – ranked as the best restaurant in Bristol on Tripadvisor - and Pipal Leaf in Redfield.
While Pipal Tree has been running for three years, Pipal Leaf was only operating for 25 days before the second lockdown began having opened in early October.
The launch of the second restaurant – which the family purchased in February before the first lockdown began – has put the business in a precarious financial position.
“While I understand we need to bring infection rates down, Tier 3 will completely kill the hospitality industry and of course I worry we will have to close both our restaurants if things don’t improve,” said Kirpal.
“A friend of mine who also runs a restaurant recently went into liquidation and I’m going to do everything I can to give us a fighting chance and make sure the same doesn’t happen to us.
“The hospitality industry has been thrown under the bus by the Government with businesses having to deal with strict safety measures, the 10pm curfew and now this with minimal support.”
Kirpal said the Government grant of £1,100 his family received to help them through the second lockdown ‘wasn’t even enough to cover the rent’.
It was announced last week that Bristol will be in Tier 3 when the English national lockdown ends on Wednesday.
This means restaurants across the city will remain shut and will only be able to operate with takeaway, clickand-collect, drive-through or delivery services.
In a bid to keep the family business afloat Kirpal will launch a takeaway service next week for the first time in the restaurant’s history, with a menu that combines the most popular dishes from both Pipal Tree and Pipal Leaf.
“We’ve never done takeaway before because we haven’t really needed to,” he added. “In the weeks that Pipal Leaf was open we were turning away between 140-200 people a week from both sites combined as we were fully booked.
“But now we will need to do it to give ourselves a last chance of survival.
“We’re currently working on the menu and logistics before hopefully going live with it next Thursday.
“I don’t want to start up a GoFundMe page or anything like that and instead want to work for this.”