THE £500 TAKEAWAY
Jaded with lockdown fast food? Then you could try this exquisite spread (but it might just give your bank manager indigestion)
IT is not quite your usual Friday night home-delivery pizza, chow mein or chicken tikka masala.
For one Scots restaurant is offering the country’s most upmarket takeaway, boasting lobster, crab and even a bottle of champagne.
Chef Dean Banks, 32, had to close his restaurant, Haar, in St Andrews, Fife, when lockdown was imposed.
But when the MasterChef finalist was having a £40 Indian takeaway, it occurred to him that for not much more money, he could provide customers with restaurant meals they could eat at home.
The father of one came up with the idea of offering home deliveries via a logistics company. The move has proved so successful he is planning to continue the service after lockdown ends.
Customers can choose a lobster and crab, served dressed and with tenderstem broccoli, a mango salad and seaweed potatoes, for £60.
Or they can order another box containing lobster, crab and a 32-day dry-aged ribeye steak, costing £90.
Alcohol starts with a bottle of Charles Heidsieck Champagne for £40. Some boxes delivered during lockdown have contained food and drinks worth £500.
Mr Banks said: ‘We are at capacity, we are doing 500 deliveries a week and can’t do any more. We are getting a lease for a unit nearby, we have outgrown the restaurant.
‘It was hard to start with but this has taken off. It is doing better than the restaurant. We have sold boxes with a value of £500.
‘During one of the first weeks of lockdown I was having an Indian takeaway and I was thinking, “I could get food from the restaurant to people’s homes”.
‘The takeaway was £40 and I thought, “For an extra £15 I could supply lobster and crab”. A lot of people have been looking for something for a special occasion, they can’t go out and celebrate.
‘People have told us, “You have lifted the spirits in our household”, and a lot of people have posted pictures of themselves setting up a table really nicely and having a lovely dinner. There was a hole in the market for this. We are going to keep going with it and growing it – it is like thinking outside the box, within a box.
‘I think it has secured job roles.A lot of people who haven’t dined in the restaurant have been ordering. We have delivered as far away as Cornwall.’
Mr Banks plans to reopen the restaurant on August 1 with fewer table numbers, dropping from up to 100 covers a day to only 55.
But he believes that many diners will continue to remain at home even when the pandemic restrictions do ease.
He said: ‘I think for the next 12 months it is going to be very different to how it was before.
‘When we reopen we will have fewer customers, fewer chefs – we are putting them in the unit.
‘I think everyone’s a little bit scared still, especially the elderly.
‘There will be a big percentage of the population who will not be going out.’
Mr Banks added: ‘We directly support local businesses. There are five boats going out fishing for us, and we work closely with a local butcher.’
Around half of the boxes delivered per week are to customers south of the Border. Insulated and filled with ice packs, each one includes instructions on reheating as well as allergy warnings.
Mr Banks said: ‘When we first started in the restaurant, my worry was getting the plate to the customer. Now it is for it leaving the restaurant to when it arrives at their home.’
‘Something for a special occasion’