A pub in Gloucester has had to change its mandatory table service policy after customers wouldn’t stop going to the bar on Super Saturday.
The Dean’s Walk Inn in Kingsholm was initially only offering table service after re-opening on July 4 for the first time since lockdown had been lifted on pubs.
This was in a bid to keep social distancing in check.
But landlord David Drake, 34, said it was “30 per cent” busier than he had envisaged so the table service time took longer than expected.
Mr Drake said: “We started off with a table service of 35 tables but as the day went forwards it was taken a while for us to get drinks out to people – at which point they [customers] started coming to the bar and then more and more of them came to the bar.”
The 34-year-old explained the slow table service came down to the fact his bar staff were having to make repeated trips in and out of the pub for each order.
He explained: “Our staff were repeatedly having to go out to take the order and then have to come back and get the drinks and then go back to get the payment, then have to come back to get the change.”
(Image: David Drake)
He has since set up pay stations to deal with the influx of customers at his St Catherine Street pub.
“We’ve tweaked our system a little bit after we were so busy on Saturday to try and emphasise the social distancing more and have a better system,” he added.
“So what we have done now is we have made dedicated order and pay points so customers can come to the bar with one person.
“Then they can pay for their drinks.”
The inside of The Dean’s Walk Inn has hazard tape surrounding the floors and “loads of signage”.
He said: “What we’ve done is we have clearly marked on the floor with hazard tape for where they can and cannot stand.
“So there’s loads of more signage and it seems to be working very well, along with the one way systems, the hand sanitisers dotted around and the track and trace system.”
Mr Drake said that part of the reason the pub experienced such a busy day was due to the coverage in Gloucestershire Live about it’s new mural, days before pubs were allowed to reopen.
Mr Drake said: “We got on the front page of The Citizen. I bought four or five, maybe six, copies of that. I had it laid out across the pub on Saturday.
“We had a lot of people – even before we had opened – just coming round and asking to come in to the car park to take photos of the mural.
“That helped us with publicity to no end really.”
