‘YOU’RE SIGNING OUR DEATH CERTIFICATE’
TOP CHEF’S WARNING TO NO-SHOW DINERS
AI don’t think people realise just how damaging not showing up is – those who do it are essentially signing our death certificate and putting us at risk of closure
TOP chef is the latest to hit out at no-shows after his restaurant suffered 20 on Sunday. The Cloak & Dagger in Cheltenham Road has developed a reputation for serving first-rate food, and its roast dinner is seen by many as one of the best in Bristol.
But on Sunday only 80 of the venue’s 100 bookings were fulfilled, resulting in a loss of around £400 and a large amount of food going to waste.
Cloak & Dagger’s head chef, Seb Merry, who has worked in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants across London including The Ledbury, Le Gavroche and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, said diners who don’t show up without cancelling are “signing our death certificate”.
“[On Sunday] we had a combination of people not turning up altogether and bookings for groups of six only turning up as a group of two or three instead,” said the 32-year-old.
“In total we were prepared for 100 bookings ... but only 80 of them showed up, and as people spend £20 on average on a Sunday that’s a loss of around £400, which is significant for a small business.
“I don’t think people realise just how damaging not showing up is – those who do it are essentially signing our death certificate and putting us at risk of closure.
“It’s not just about loss of revenue at a difficult time, we also had to throw a lot of food away as we don’t open again
Chef Seb Merry
until Thursday so it can’t be kept.”
As much leftover food as possible is handed to rough sleepers on Gloucester Road and Stokes Croft when there is produce leftover, but Seb said some still ends up in the bin which is “gutting”.
As a result of Sunday’s spate of noshows, the restaurant will soon introduce a deposit system to try and curb the trend.
Effective from next week, customers will need to pay £5 each over the phone when they call up to book, which will then be deducted off their bill.
“We’d rather not have a deposit system in place as it involves a lot of admin to operate, but there’s no other option than to reintroduce it to make sure we protect ourselves,” added Seb.
“We’re operating on reduced days and with a range of measures in place to ensure we’re Covid-secure, so it’s hugely demoralising when we have a day like yesterday.
“Hopefully people realise it’s just not an acceptable thing to do.”