Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
At last! We’ll be ready and waiting for you on July 4!
City pubs, restaurants and salons are all set
The easing of lockdown restrictions has signalled a welcome green light for some of the hardest hit businesses in hospitality and hairdressing in the city. After more than three dire months of closure, restaurants, pubs and cafes as well as salons are gearing up to re-open on July 4, albeit with some special measures and restrictions in place. It will be a huge boost to Canterbury where eateries and bars form such an important part of the business economy.
The social distancing reduction to one metre is a particular big boost for restaurants as they reconfigure their seating plans to cater for the new norm. Restaurant, pub and bar managers will be taking customers’ contact details so that, in the event of a local Covid-19 outbreak, they can be traced by the NHS and advised to self-isolate. Memhet Dari, owner of Turkish restaurant A La Turka, says he can’t wait to re-open doors next Saturday.
The St Dunstan’s Street eatery boss said: “We’ll absolutely be opening on the first day we can. “We’ve been counting the days and all our customers have been so patient - they can’t wait to come back. People want to have a great time with their families and will be able to. “Everything will be safe and in line with the government guidance. It’ll obviously be different but very slowly we’ll get back to normal.
“We’re going to have to lose a few tables and we’ll be wearing masks if that is in the guidance. “Customers have nothing to fear about coming as it’ll all be safe.”
The closure of business has given some the chance to give their premises a makeover, like the Coach and Horses in Harbledown where the landlord Eddie Sargeant has created a new Ibiza-style outdoor lounge bar. Named the Olive Grove, the mini complex of u-shaped sofas has been designed to adhere to social distancing rules. Eddie, who took on the pub six months ago, kitted out the area himself at a cost of £15,000 - making the most of the lockdown period by working 10 hours every day on the project. “This is going to be something where customers literally say ‘wow’ when they see it,” he said. “There’s nothing else like it in Canterbury - it’s going to be a very cool and chilled place. “At the Olive Grove we can socially distance groups of up to six people. It’ll be a full waiter service for food and drink, so customers will text the bar their order. They’ll be hosted to tables as they arrive and there will be Covid rules on tables.
“I’m really looking forward to it opening.”
Mr Sargeant, who also runs Teatros bar in the city centre’s Orange Street, says the Ibiza-style Olive Grove will only be open to adults.
The existing pub garden will also be back up-and-running come July 4.
“We’re properly set up to offer a full menu when we reopen,” Mr Sargeant added. During lockdown, The Old Coach and Horses has supplied about 700 meals, free of charge, to the over-70s in Harbledown. Hair salons are also gearing up to re-open and have thousands of customers itching for a much-needed trim. But it will be a quite different environment, where the traditional chit- chat will be discouraged
Mike Garrett, a partner at Blakes Hair and Beauty in Dover Street, says his furloughed staff are keen to get back to work. “Like other salons, we will have fewer stylists at work as any one time and long opening hours to deal with the backlog because we have hundreds of customers waiting for appointments.
“We have only just got the detailed government working guidelines and are going through them but we’ve been ready to go for some time with visors and screens.
“It will be quite a different experience and we’ll be open from 7am to 9.30pm as well as Sundays, getting our customers who we had to cancel first.”