Pubs deliver beer and grub as trade dries up in coronavirus crisis
Traders drop off provisions to customers’ doors as they innovate with new services amid national lockdown
PUBS the length and breadth of Britain are delivering pints and hot food to punters’ doors for the first time, after the Government first advised people to stay at home, and then eventually ordered pubs, bars and restaurants to shut their doors.
Some pubs are even live streaming quizzes to combat loneliness, while others are offering discounts on food and drink for NHS workers on the front line of the fight against Covid-19, as well as teachers.
The Government has relaxed regulations to allow pubs and restaurants to offer takeaway services, so long as they alert local authorities.
Communities forced into self-isolation and social distancing are supporting the initiatives in a bid to keep the village local alive.
David Church, 59, who runs The Two Brewers pub in Olney, Buckinghamshire, is delivering traditional pub grub to homes in the area in a new project he has dubbed “Breweroo”. “People can just ring up and order and we will send out food at a slightly lower price to our normal menu, as well as beers, cider and wine – and we will also come and collect the rubbish after,” he says.
“Our food trade has all but gone so this is how we are going to keep the business going through this, and people have been very supportive so far.” He intends to keep his three permanent members of staff on the payroll by getting them to do jobs including gardening, refurbishing and painting the pub, where he would typically hire a contractor.
Louise Mckenzie, 38, has been running the Greyhound Inn free house in Pettistree, Suffolk, with her husband Stewart for the past seven years. Bookings for lunch and dinner at the pub have more than halved.
“So we’ve decided to do food deliveries to keep things going,” Mckenzie said. “We are doing takeaways of our normal menu and you can either pick it up or we will deliver. I’m also doing hampers of fishcakes, paté, cheese and home-made puddings, and we are experimenting with making frozen meals for elderly villagers,” she says.
Patrons can take home a four-pint “growler” of local ale and order a takeaway curry on a Thursday night and the pub is also doing takeaway roast dinners for Mother’s Day.
The Chestnut pub group, made up of 11 establishments across East Anglia, is drumming up business and providing entertainment for people stuck indoors by organising live pub quizzes that can be filmed and streamed directly into people’s homes.
Members of the 15-strong Upham Pub Group are offering discounts to NHS workers and teachers, as well as delivering orders for break, milk, eggs and pasta to those self-isolating in the area.
NHS staff will get a 40pc discount on takeaway orders from the Buck Inn in Curridge, Berkshire, while teachers will be offered discounts of as much as 25pc at the Wheelwright Arms in Havant, Hampshire.
Murrough Mchugh, 48, the landlord of the Old Smithy Inn in Welcombe, near Bideford in north Devon, said village pubs were a vital part of small rural economies that may be lost forever following the outbreak.
“We are not just a pub, but a social hub. We support local food suppliers and local musicians and we don’t always make a profit, but it’s how we want to live our life here and it’s part of why people come to Devon and Cornwall and the South West for their holidays,” he says.
Along with help from a group of local volunteers, the pub is delivering food to the elderly, as well as pints in wax cartons.
Regulars can come and fill up their own receptacles with their favourite beers as well.
Mchugh adds: “When they asked Winston Churchill whether they should cut arts funding to fund the war effort, he replied, ‘Well then what would we be fighting for?’
“If we let businesses and all our local colour go by the wayside, then what would we be trying to fight and survive this virus for?”