One restaurateur’s plea: How am I doing? How the f*** do you think I’m doing?
How am I doing? How the f*** do you think I’m doing?
At every turn I politely say “struggling on” or another platitude: “smiling on the outside, crying on the inside.”
But let’s put this into perspective. Pied à Terre has been on Charlotte Street for almost 30 years, 28 of those with a Michelin star. Other than a fire, we’ve never closed other than pre-arranged holidays. But in 2020, I was forced to close the restaurant on three separate occasions, all at short notice.
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Beyond the furlough scheme, there’s been precious little help. With business rates well over £100,000 per annum, I didn’t qualify for the first grant – though now I’m hopeful of the £9k grant. Every little bit helps, but it is so little, it doesn’t touch the sides (as the actress said to the Bishop).
And there’s the landlord. My English teacher, Mr Cassidy at Blackpool Palatine High, would no doubt be disappointed in me for not knowing the meaning of the word abeyance. Perhaps ignorance was bliss.
When heading into the first lockdown, I wrote a heartfelt letter to our agent. For 29 years we have paid the rent diligently, without a void, without a loss to this client. The agent came back offering to put the rent in “abeyance” and I thought the pressure was off. A month later, a rent demand came in – with a note from the agent telling us not to worry about it. I didn’t!
We planned to reopen in September. We redesigned the website, introduced anti-bac fogging machines, printed single use menus, put sanitising stations at every touch point, cut down the covers, bought protective equipment, shrunk the team and put them on four day weeks to spread the hours around…
… and then the letter arrives asking us to pay the back rent. Something else to worry about, but I was grateful I had 5 months of ignorance.as to the meaning of “abeyance”
Over the last year, we’ve turned a business on its head from it had been doing very successfully for nearly 30 years. We’ve provided a new, more relaxed, flexible and informal style of offering. We’ve started a vegan home delivery service which sells out every week, and now hampers for every occasion, with Valentines day just around the corner.
And yet, despite all of this, just before Christmas we were again shut. Restaurants and pubs closed, premises that have put every effort into making their premises ‘Covid-secure,’ but shops and high streets flooded with people?
Covid-19 will have to do a lot, lot more if it’s to see us off. Perhaps the hospitality industry will be the Taiwan of 2021 – coming back stronger than ever after its Government made sensible decisions about re-opening after the pandemic hit. Here’s hoping Boris et al starts to get it right.
Then you can ask me how I’m doing…