Jenrick’s pasties puzzle leaves landlords confused
NEW rules that allow restaurants and pubs to stay open if they serve “substantial” meals were mired in confusion yesterday as a minister suggested a Cornish pasty met the criteria if served with chips or a salad.
Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary, said customers would be expected to eat a “proper” meal for restaurants and pubs in tier- three areas to be allowed to serve alcohol. A packet of crisps or chips, he said, would not count.
However, critics warned that the regulations were open to interpretation, leaving restaurateurs and publicans with difficult judgments to make about the correct balance of alcohol and food.
The rules are central to determining whether restaurants and pubs in tierthree areas should close, threatening their viability and the livelihoods of owners, managers and staff.
Mr Jenrick said a meal must be “substantial” and “the sort you would expect to have as a midday meal or an evening meal”.
“If you would expect to go into that restaurant normally, or pub, and order a plated meal at the table, of a Cornish pasty with chips or side salad or whatever it comes with, then that’s a normal meal,” he said. “This isn’t actually as unusual a concept as you might feel. We’ve had this in law for licence-holders for a long time because it’s the same rule that has applied if you take a minor into a pub.”
However, Kate Nicholls, the UKHOSpitality chief executive, said it was “incredibly confusing” for businesses that had to stay open because if they closed voluntarily they would not be
‘If you have a baked potato and five glasses of wine, that’s probably not proportionate’
eligible for government compensation.
“It’s horrible because it is going to come down to pragmatic common sense which, in a legal environment, makes for a nightmare,” she said.
“You are perfectly OK to be open and selling plates of chips. It is the sale of alcohol alongside it that is the problem. How substantive is the portion of food relative to the portion of alcohol.
“If you have a baked potato and five glasses of wine, that’s probably not proportionate. But a potato and side salad and glass of wine, that’s probably fine.”