Riverbank and Stores to ‘weather the storm’
DESPITE the fact that we’re only six weeks into this Covid-19 ‘ lockdown’, for many of us the thoughts of heading out for a bite to eat or a night on the town already seem like a distant memory. At opposing sides of Wexford Bridge, the Riverbank House Hotel and The Centenary Stores are both eerily quiet as management await a government announcement relaxing restrictions.
‘It’s almost like we’re at the line waiting for the starting-gun to sound so we can set off,’ said General Manager at The Riverbank, Colm Campbell. ‘Obviously we’re keen to get back to work, but we will adhere to whatever guidelines are set down by the Chief Medical Officer. I just hope that we get some kind of notice in advance of when any opening will be. Obviously there would be a lot work that would have to go into re-opening in terms of preparation and that type of thing.’
Hotels seem to be placed in a very different category to pubs at the moment, and comments from Minister for Health Simon Harris in recent days will have been far more concerning for the owners of the latter than the former.
‘I think it is different for hotels,’ Mr Campbell said. ‘In a way we’ve no economy without them. It’s not just in terms of tourism, but people need to travel for business and that type of thing too. I would fully expect that when we do re-open, we’ll have to continue to adhere to social distancing etc. This can be difficult to manage, but we’ve had some experience of this before we closed and we know how to act.’
In terms of sister business The Centenary Stores, Mr Campbell says it’s a waiting game too.
‘I assume that whatever the government guidelines are, they will be followed,’ he said. ‘I’m sure it will re-open when the time comes. We’ve had new investors come on board over
the past year and I’d fully expect that both businesses will be able to weather this storm.’
In terms of the hotel, there seems to be an excitement surrounding re-opening, hopefully, to some extent at least, in the coming weeks.
‘We’ve been working on our new summer menu in recent weeks where we’ve asked people to vote for their favourite dishes that we’ve served over the years,’ Mr Campbell explained. ‘We’re looking forward to unveiling that and welcoming our loyal customers back through the doors as soon as possible.’