CHILLY FIRST TASTE OF FREEDOM!
It’s like being reunited with an old friend says our man down the pub
ITWAS the unmistakable taste of freedom.
Months of lockdown restrictions had created a nation of home drinkers and amateur cooks.
Opening a bottle or two before the sun was over the yardarm was one guilty pleasure for stressed-out home workers.While, for others, there was only so much banana bread one could stomach.
So, after 158 thirsty days of exile, along with thousands of others in England, I returned to the great British institution – the humble boozer – for some honest grub and a bellyful of beer. I joined hundreds at The Griffin Inn in Fletching, East Sussex – where the temperature was a teeth-chattering 2C.
Still, it did little to deter al-fresco punters.The pub was fully booked as 150 customers toasted postlockdown liberty in the beer garden.
Having donned a woolly hat and scarf, I tucked into a hearty plate of fish and chips and many pints of Harvey’s Sussex Best. It was like being reunited with a long-lost friend.The first gulp was as comforting as I had remembered.
Truly a moment to savour. Hours later, as I paid up and stumbled into the night, my memory was less clear.
While punters like me raised a glass and rejoiced at rediscovered freedom, yesterday was bittersweet for landlords across England. Of the 37,500 pubs that could have opened, only 40 per cent – roughly 15,000 – had a big enough outdoor space to do so.
Some establishments pulled their first pints on the stroke of midnight and opened doors to hundreds who flocked into the beer gardens.
Snow
Others have set up mobile bars, food trucks and bought new benches, shelters and heaters to cater for those sitting outside.
At The Griffin the pandemic has been devastating. Landlord James Pullan was forced to furlough 35 staff and has lost an estimated £1million in turnover from not being able to open for eight of the past 13 months.
As the 56-year-old looked out across the rolling countryside he calls the Sussex Serengeti, he said: “Restaurants and pubs have been the whipping boys of the pandemic – shut down first and opened up last.Talented people no longer see a future in the hospitality business and that’s a great shame. In each lockdown I lost a pub manager.
“I am a super-optimistic person but this has sapped every last bit of energy and will from me. I don’t think I could cope with another lockdown.And isn’t it typical, on the day we are allowed to reopen it was the coldest day of the year and we woke up to a blanket of snow?
“But we’re back in business, finally.”
The Griffin Inn beer garden was rammed with families, most dressed for mid-winter rather than a sun-kissed spring day.Among them were mums Alexis Rylands, 38, Lucy Lowry, 36, Emily Bright, 40, and Katie Hayday, 44, who had not seen
each other since Christmas and who headed straight to the pub while their children were at school.
They sipped prosecco while wearing ski wear including long johns, snow boots, hats and gloves – and were given blankets by the pub. Lucy said: “Doing something you have always taken for granted certainly makes you appreciate everything. We’ve been looking forward to this for months.”
Packed
Their experience was shared across the UK.
Sara Barnes, Katie Davies, Amber Harrison and Georgia Noon enjoyed a drink at the Escape to Freight Island bar in Depot Island, Manchester, while punters were ready for the elements in umbrella hats at the Still &West pub at Spice Island, Portsmouth. In Macclesfield, cyclists quenched their thirst on snow-covered ground outside The Cat and Fiddle Inn.
The huge beer garden at the Fox On The Hill at Denmark Hill, London, was packed, while business was also booming at the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate, Kent.
The new pub routine may not be to everyone’s taste. Customers no longer need to order a substantial meal with alcoholic drinks and there is no 10pm curfew.
But they must order, eat and drink seated at a table and must follow the rule of six, or be in a group of any size but with no more than two households present.
Everyone over 16 has to check in and give contact details to bar staff. Masks must be worn and social distancing observed when visiting the toilet.
It’s certainly not how a trip to the pub used to be, but it’ll do for now.