The Vineyard’s ready – and raring to go again!
Hotel gears up for big reopening on Monday after months of lockdown
AFTER months of enforced closure, staff at a Stockcross hotel are busy getting ready for the highly-anticipated reopening of pubs and restaurants.
The Vineyard was forced to shut its restaurant and spa in December last year as Covid numbers across the county increased and a third national lockdown was swiftly introduced after Christmas.
But on Monday alfresco dining will return to The Pavilion, located in the grounds of the hotel, and a new menu – including Newbury Weekly News sea bass – will welcome the guests. The restaurant will be open every day from noon until 8pm.
General manager at The Vineyard Paul Shanahan said that a number of measures were in place, in line with Government guidelines, to ensure the safety of guests and staff.
“We have started to bring the teams back and are currently doing a lot of training ahead of the reopening,” he added.
“We will have our Bohemianstyle pavilion on the front lawn, with a fire pit in the middle and gas heaters to ensure everyone is warm.
“There are a lot of safety measures in there so it will be very safe; everything is socially distanced and 50 per cent of the sides will be open.
“Tom Scade, our executive chef, has designed a fire pit menu as we bought a fire pit for the kitchen in December.
“He’s taking a lot of spring ingredients and it will be a tapas-style menu that people can graze on.
“We are using some of the core ideas we had in December because they didn’t all have time to come to fruition – with a few slight adjustments. It is going to be great.”
The Pavilion, which will be “a slightly different design this time”, will seat a maximum of 80 people on 20 tables at any one time.
“It is quite a big space, but we will have nothing larger than a table of six guests,” Mr Shanahan
added.
“We will maintain that throughout and if laws change we will adapt.
“We were able to ebb and flow through the changes in legislation last time and will continue to do that.”
The hotel has been offering takeaway afternoon tea throughout the third lockdown and plans are already in place to welcome people back inside after the third phase of reopening, in May.
It is hoped that from mid-May the hotel will be able to welcome guests and offer afternoon tea, fine dining in the restaurants and Sunday lunch once again.
The spa will be available, in two-hour allocated slots, for hotel guests only in the beginning, opening up further after
June 21 if Government guidelines allow.
The Vineyard’s sister hotel Donnington Valley will also see the welcome return of its outside “dining grill and chill”, The HangOut, on Monday.
The spa will also reopen at Donnington Valley from Monday for both guests and members, although Mr Shanahan said that restrictions will be place to ensure everyone’s safety.
“
There are a lot of safety measures in there so it will be very safe