But we always felt in control
Ben Marlow-Booth, it was a big success.
He said: “Things went great at the Beerhouse – we were very happy with the numbers.
“Table service took a while to get used to and to be honest we could be a bit quicker, but practice makes perfect!
“We are proud to say that social distancing by the staff and customers was very, very good.
“Customers need to wait by the entrance before being shown to a table and we were very clear in the hand sanitising and social distancing rules on entry so it was very easy to keep on top of.
“It felt so good to be back after three months.
“We truly love the work that we do at the Beerhouse and it has been sorely missed.”
STEAMIN’ BILLY PUBS - THE RAILWAY, Hinckley; THE WHITE BEAR, Hinckley; THE HORSE AND TRUMPET, Sileby
These three pubs reopened on Saturday.
PULLING TOGETHER: Pubs in the county and beyond have been welcoming back customers - but with new cleaning procedures in place
According to owner Billy Allingham, “quiet and uneventful” was the theme for each of them, with guests being well behaved and adhering to the new rules with social distancing and one-way systems.
He told the Mercury: “We were very happy to welcome customers back and customers were very happy to be back.
“Like-for-like opening weekend trading figures were at 68 per cent of last year’s and we were operating at 60 per cent usual capacity for guests.”
THE GREY LADY RESTAURANT, Newtown Linford
The Grey Lady restaurant reopened on Saturday and was fully booked with eager diners.
Phill Gibson, executive chef, said: “It was a very strange and surreal experience, even though we have been operating for over 30 years, and we felt a certain amount of trepidation.
“Fortunately, all our customers came out in full to support us and we were fully booked both Saturday and Sunday.
“With the addition of our new terrace area, we are now able to accommodate 120 customers with two-metre social distancing in place.”
Prior to lockdown, the restaurant could accommodate similar numbers, but all guests would all eat inside.
The terrace does rely somewhat on good weather, but there are marquees, heaters and blankets available.
According to Phill, The Grey Lady has been Covid-19 accredited by a specialist company, which the restaurant hopes will give customers additional assurance that it is Covid-secure.
“Many of our customers commented on how safe they felt with the systems we had put in place. Everyone respected other diners and social distanced.”
FOURWARDS AT ASHFIELDS, Earl Shilton
This restaurant reopened to diners on Saturday.
According to Stacey Ward, who owns and runs the restaurant with her husband Adam, the weekend went very well.
She told us: “We had limited our numbers on Saturday to 50 (previously we would have done around 75) and on Sunday we had 80 sit down guests and 35 takeaways.
“We do two sittings on a Sunday so we reused the tables, and had extra staff on.
“We have new cleaning procedures for when guests leave – we clean all the chair legs, the woodwork around the table, the entire table from top to bottom.
“We’re cleaning the toilets every hour, too.
“We offered table service before, so on that level our service was the same.
“We have had great feedback from our customers as they all said it felt totally normal, which was what we wanted. Although we as a business have put extra procedures in place to protect everyone, we want the customers to relax and enjoy themselves.”
Due to the Leicester lockdown, Fourwards was one of a number of places to introduce a system where customers’ postcodes are required upon booking, and photographic ID is needed when they arrive.
According to Stacey, customers had no problem with this. “Everyone
was more than understanding and helped us out a lot,” she said. “All in all, a great weekend was had. We all slotted straight back into it and it was honestly amazing to get back to it.
“We only just finished our refurbishment on Friday night, but it was such a lovely feeling to open on Saturday and welcome our guests back. “The last three months have been really tough in every way. We didn’t know when we could reopen and also it was hard as a family, but we all got through it together.”
It was such a lovely feeling to open on Saturday. The last three months have been really tough
Stacey Ward