Coronavirus: Brighton restaurants split on weekend reopening

But whether they will choose to open their doors on the day is another matter.

Some restaurants in Brighton are more confident than others.

The Ladies Mile pub in Patcham is one of many reopening tomorrow.

But managers Gayle and Paul Newman have put stringent measures in place to keep customers safe.

Hand sanitiser has been placed at entrances and staff will wash their hands after every task or every 30 minutes.

The pub’s capacity has been reduced from 250 to 96 and weekend punters will have to reserve a slot ahead of time.

“We’re a locals’ pub and what I didn’t want to happen was lots of people coming in during the day and then us having to turn away locals later on,” said Ms Newman, 48.

The Ladies Mile will open tomorrow with rigorous social distancing measures in place

“We’ve shortened our opening hours on some weekdays as we have to have more staff in to ensure everything’s being cleaned regularly.

“But all the staff are happy to come back to work because they know we’ve taken measures to keep them safe.

“Paul and I have lived here for 16 years and we’ve got two children upstairs so we wouldn’t want to open if it wasn’t safe.”

The couple said they were surprised the Government had chosen a Saturday to loosen restrictions.

“I thought they would go for a soft open in the week,” Gayle said.

“But we don’t have to open, we’ve taken the choice to open and put all these plans in place. It’s suck it and see.”

Meanwhile in the city’s narrow North Laine, Mexican restaurant La Choza plans to reopen for outdoor dining on Saturday, weather permitting. It will not welcome diners indoors until Monday.

Its Western Road restaurant will remain closed due to a structural problem which developed during lockdown.

Mexican restaurant La Choza will reopen for outdoor dining only on Saturday, weather permitting

Co-owner Annie Gelpey thinks the Government has not given the industry enough time to prepare.

And she said the restaurant may go back to takeaway-only service if demand gets too much.

“I think it’s really unfair the way things have been done, being given two weeks to prepare,” said Ms Gelpey, 49.

“There are 64 pages of guidance for reopening, but there are still things which are unclear.

“What data do we need to take from people in case they need to be traced? What about data protection?

“We’ve kept to the rules all the way and I don’t want that to change.

“I think it will be busy, especially because the Government is lifting these rules on the busiest day of the week.

“We might have to keep doing takeaway only if it gets too overwhelming.”

Away from the city centre in College Place, The Ginger Dog pub will reopen for drinks and bar snacks only.

Gingerman Group owners Ben and Pamela McKellar will open the Ginger Dog tomorrow

But co-owners Ben and Pamela McKellar will wait longer to open the four other restaurants they own as heads of the Gingerman Group.

The Flint House in The Lanes, The Ginger Pig in Hove and The Ginger Fox in the South Downs will all open on Wednesday for dinner service only.

And The Gingerman restaurant in Norfolk Square will not open until July 16.

“We just didn’t want to rush with all the risk assessments,” said Ms Mckellar, 42. “The Ginger Dog is a locals’ pub so we wanted to open it for them on Saturday.

“We’ll serve food on Sunday and then open for reduced hours later on in the week.

“If we were opening in the town centre we would be nervous but we’re quite far out. We’ve had a lovely flurry of bookings already, one of the regulars has already booked themselves in five times over the next few months.”

Other pubs and restaurants have chosen not to open this weekend.

The Prince Albert in Trafalgar Street announced on Facebook it had delayed its reopening indefinitely.

“We need more time be sure we aren’t rushing into a situation that could end up with us having to close again,” it said.

And David Toscano, owner of Italian restaurants Cin Cin, will open his Western Road site on July 18 and keep his Vine Street restaurant closed for the time being as it is too small to open safely.

Cin Cin owner David Toscano will not open any of his restaurants until July 18

“We never intended to reopen on the 4th, we weren’t given enough time and there were too many questions,” the 42-year-old said.

“We want to make sure we get this right. The guidelines are a bit ambiguous, from one page you could think of 20 different scenarios on how to apply them.”

The restaurateur said he was looking forward to serving customers again. But he wondered what their attitudes would be to safety measures.

“Some people might be more blase and other people nervous, so we’ll have to manage the situation if one group is next to the other,” he said. “Even before lockdown we had those kinds of situations – two doctors walked in and asked to be seated so they weren’t near anyone else.

“All of the city’s restaurants are doing the best they can to keep customers and staff safe.”

• At The Argus, we are championing the work of traders during the coronavirus pandemic as part of our #BackingSussexBusiness campaign. We are always interested to hear how the community is coming together in this crisis. If you know of a local business battling to do all it can in these tough times and/or offering support to the local community, please get in touch at laurie.churchman@theargus.co.uk and rose.lock@theargus.co.uk.