Irish pubs plan to reopen next month with table service and standing banned – is this how UK boozers will get go-ahead?
PUBS in Ireland are planning to reopen next month with table service only and standing banned.
Boozers hope to be slinging pints by the end of June with new measures including a maximum of six punters per table.
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They’ll also ban standing at bars, axe live music and limit numbers in boozers in a bid to help revive the industry amid the pandemic.
All customers will also be required to use hand sanitiser upon entry and ordered to remain seated while inside the premises, while staff will be “fully trained” in the new procedures, including handwashing every 30 minutes.
Pubs in the UK are set to reopen last in a phased exit from coronavirus lockdown later this year.
But the Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, which together represent most of Ireland’s estimated 7,000 pubs, will meet with ministers this week to push for the reopening of pubs at the end of June in line with restaurants and cafes.
The Irish Sun yesterday went inside one of the country’s bars to show how the experience will change under the drastic plans for post-lockdown pints.
Our reporter sanitised upon entering The Exchequer Wine Bar in Dublin before co-owner Thor O’Brien showed how staff would be providing table service, dishing out favourites including Peroni beer on trays.
POST-LOCKDOWN PINTS
We also measured out how floor space could be managed in order to maintain social distanced drinking.
And while bar owner Peter Rock welcomed the reopening blueprint from the two main vintners groups, he delivered a sobering message to the Government that they need to offer more resources for publicans.
Mr Rock — the son of legendary crooner Dickie — told the Irish Sun: “We depend on pretty much full capacity.
“It is going to be very difficult to try to operate on 30 per cent capacity.
“In particular, when you are going to have to have just as many staff as 100 per cent capacity as there is so much more involved in it, all the sanitising of the areas, you need to have staff on hand to regularly clean the areas, it will be all table service.
“As much as we welcome what the LVA are saying and the plans for us to open again, it is just going to be so difficult for businesses to turn a profit unless we get help from the Government, the banks and the landlords.”
Under new proposals, bars will become ‘dispense’ areas only — with sitting, standing, ordering, paying or drinking at the counter banned.
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And no more than four people would be allowed for every 10sqm, with table service a requirement in all pubs. Other measures include the “utilisation of outdoor spaces to enhance social distancing”.
This week it emerged Green King is planning to open UK beer gardens with punters ordering drinks via phones when the lockdown lifts.
Gardens will most likely be the first areas that will reopen in pubs following easing of coronavirus lockdown measures, according to chief executive Nick Mackenzie.