Pubs that serve food are happy to open up

A GOREY FAVOURITE Katie Daly’s bar and restaurant opened its doors for the first time and began offering takeaway on Wednesday last, but sit down meals are now available.

The team are all wearing their personal protective equipment and keeping up with social distancing requirements.

Staff member Darragh Howard said that all at Katie Daly’s are very happy to be back at work.

‘We have a one way system and so far so good. We’ve taken out a few tables and we have four Covid-19 supervisors on the floor.

‘The chefs are wearing their own PPE and we have our new visors and sanitisers all up and running. We must protect ourselves and our customers,’ he said.

He said that the biggest change for the hospitality industry is the social aspect.

‘I can already see some of the changes coming along in the industry. Hospitality is such a friendly business, you’re on a first name basis with all of your customers, especially regulars.

‘I would usually stop and have conversations with the regulars, maybe sit in at the table and have a quick catch up with them, especially if they haven’t been in for a while but now we can’t do that.

‘Even when we take orders we’ll have to keep the social distance so from here on out it’ll be quick conversations. I’m sure that will be strange particularly for our regulars.

‘But we’ll be doing as much as the social distancing allows for, and we’re relying on the general public now though as we have educated ourselves on

Covid-19 so we all have to do our little bit now to make sure that it stays at bay’.

This summer, the Cellar bar will be open all week long rather than just the weekends, and take-away services will continue with a new menu.

‘We’ve had a few changes to the menu to accommodate social distancing in the kitchen, but when customers are in we’d be happy to answer any questions on our Covid-19 policy’.

Darragh said that the last week has been like a sprint to the end to get prepared to re-open.

‘We got all of our PPE on time and we had no delays. The companies that are supplying the protective shields and the sanitisers, they are just so quick at getting everything we need’.

Staff ask that you use contactless payment where possible and phone an order in advance.