Restaurants react to the first night of the 10pm curfew: 'I am absolutely shaken by this'

Early doors: Restaurants have been told they must close by 10pm every day as part of new coronavirus restrictions
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Ailis Brennan25 September 2020

Late nights are out, and a 10pm curfew is officially in. The new restrictions aimed at tackling coronavirus came into force yesterday, seeing many restaurants, pubs and bars shut their doors much earlier than usual.

Earlier in the week, the Prime Minister's announcement of the new regulations sparked fury and grave concern over job losses in the hospitality sector.

The vast majority of hospitality figures condemned the government's decision, claiming that the curfew simply "didn't make sense" with regards to combating the rise in coronavirus cases, as well as calling the move "a slow death" and "classic Tory bulls***".

This morning, chefs and business owners have been sharing their experiences of the first night of curfew, and detailing the impact it had on their ability to trade.

Jackson Boxer, chef owner of Notting Hill restaurant Orasay and Vauxhall restaurant Brunswick House, tweeted that he had seen a "massive reduction in revenue" at at least one of his restaurants, and that he was "absolutely shaken by this".

"First night: guests were lovely and supportive as always," he said. "However the numbers are deeply alarming. Spend per head 30% down. Covers diminished by about the same."

"There has to be a reversal, or some really significant funding, way more effective than what's been announced," he continued in further tweets. "And I refuse to sacrifice a single member of my team for this."

Adam Handling, chef owner of Covent Garden restaurant The Frog and his eponymous restaurant at the Belmond Cadogan hotel in Chelsea, took to Instagram to share a video he made at 10.30pm last night, half an hour after he was forced to close his West End restaurant.

"Usually my restaurant is absolutely full and pumping at the moment, but it's absolutely dead," Handling said in the video.

"I understand the government needs to act but I believe they've acted without really understanding the impact of these measures," he added in the caption. "It's not just closing restaurants and bars 'one hour earlier', it's adversely impacting the occupancy rates and revenues of a sector that's already been shot to s***. The 3rd biggest sector in the UK economy."

Charlie Gilkes, co-founder of Inception Group, which counts bars and restaurants including Mr Fogg's and Bunga Bunga among its portfolio, highlighted that many of his customers could quite possibly head to less safe environments after ending their night at his venues.

"Very sad to see many people leave our safe trading environments with social distancing strictly enforced at 10pm and head off for house parties," he said. "Makes NO sense. A political not scientific move."

Julian Bartlett of Hakata Ramen + Bar in Bermondsey said on Twitter that the restaurant "was visited by police at 21:50 telling customers that they have to have paid and left the premises by 22:00."

"This is simply unjustified," he added. "We have to allow customers reasonable time to finish their meal/drinks or it will destroy us."

Jonathan Downey, founder of Milk & Honey, Street Feast and Hospitality Union, detailed how both the pandemic and the government's new restrictions have impacted sales at his street food market Dinerama.

After detailing that he had seen a 22 per cent decline in sales last week, coinciding with the introduction of the government's "Rule of Six", he added, "Last night: Sales down 26% on the previous Thursday because of the new curfew. The real hit will come tonight and tomorrow."

Yesterday and today, industry figures have also been reacting to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak's new "winter plan", aimed at tackling unemployment in the coming months.

The £300 million-a-month deal replacing furlough will see employees guaranteed a minimum of 77 per cent of their regular earnings for at six months. Employees who face being laid off can work fewer days in the week, and have the “rest days” paid for in part by their employer, in part by the government and taking a wage reduction to count for the rest.

Downey tweeted yesterday: "Is that it? It that really it? Your colleagues in cabinet have just killed off thousands of businesses and a million jobs will now be lost because of this knee-jerk, no-basis, misguided, reckless curfew and that’s all you’ve got for us? It’s not enough." Downey has previously campaigned for a nine-month rent holiday for restaruants and hospitality businesses across the UK.

Adam Hyman, the editor of industry journal CODE Hospitality, said, "Am I missing something about this new Jobs Support Scheme? To get government support employers need to pay 55% of staff wages and they get 33% of working hours in return?!"

Sunak also outlined plans to extend emergency loan schemes for businesses and extend the current VAT cut in the tourism and hospitality industries.

With the current government furlough scheme due to finish at the end of October, coupled with the new reduced trading hours for food and drink-serving businesses, recent days have seen numerous prominent figures in the hospitality industry call for greater support from the government to help prevent the loss of "about one million jobs".

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