Restaurant is ‘blown away’ by response after 50 cancel
IT EXPECTED A SLOW DAY BUT ENDED UP BEING ENTIRELY BOOKED OUT
A HULL restaurant was devastated after a party of 50 guests made a last-minute cancellation, however, thanks to the local community, the restaurant had an overwhelming number of bookings.
Cave Bar and Kitchen in South Cave had secured the booking and were expecting to reserve the entirety of its upstairs seating area.
General manager, Chris, 27, said: “On Saturday we were expecting an empty restaurant, but we ended up with a sustained and full diary for the rest of the day.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who’s shown such amazing support. It’s been amazing to see the community coming together to support a local business.”
The issue arose after the individual who had made the sizeable booking proceeded to cancel it after they had already ordered fresh produce for the booking.
Chris said the booker had made a reservation for 50 guests who were going to dine at the restaurant for a buffet-style Sunday Roast, she added that they would be paying individually.
Last Sunday when Chris called to confirm the numbers, he reminded the booker that the orders would go onto a pre-order and she would be held liable for any guest who did not show up or left without paying.
However, she said she could not do that and was going to need to drop the numbers.
So the restaurant and booker amicably agreed she would be held liable for only 30 of the guests, while still expecting all 50 people to turn up.
On Friday, the booker received an automated email confirming her booking, to which she clicked a button saying she was not attending. The restaurant did not receive that notification.
They were unaware of the cancellation until Saturday when Chris got in touch with her to confirm and she said she would need to cancel.
The booker replied: “I messaged everyone to confirm and the numbers dropped drastically to 40 guests, with 20 wanting to eat.”
At this point, the restaurant staff put out a Facebook post explaining what happened and inviting anyone who was free to come along for a roast dinner.
Chris said: “Once we posted that we had the cancellation, we received overwhelming support from the community, which we were blown away by.
“We received an amazing amount of bookings, as well as phone calls from people asking if they could come to dine with us for Sunday lunch. Our delivery and collection services also became sold out very quickly.
“It was amazing for us but also for all the staff, many of whom are local to the area who rely on us for their income.”