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ubs spent thousands of pounds renovating the outdoor spaces, and one owner said, “If you open your doors with what you had before, you’ll be left behind.”
The rooms in England with terraces will reopen on Monday for the first time since the beginning of January.
Half of Britons plan to go to a pub or restaurant when the rules calm down, according to a recent survey by investment bank Jefferies.
The Alma Inn near Halifax West Yorkshire has invested heavily in converting an overflow area near the parking lot to make what its Instagram account has dubbed a ‘second pub’.
A before and after shot shows how the Alma Inn modified its overflow space to accommodate more guests
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The new area includes a mobile bar, food truck and new benches, while the land also needed to be leveled.
“We used to only have a few benches on it,” John Priest, 38, one of the pub’s managers, told the PA News Agency.
“You’re a bit on a slope, it’s 50 yards from the pub, so it was like an overflow.
“Rather than just using it as an overflow area and having a handful of benches, we’re trying to maximize the space we have.
“We have to be prepared to meet demand. If we got to a point next week or the following week where we had nowhere to sit, we would have failed as a business in our eyes.
“If we cannot meet the demand that is there, then we are wrong.”
The Alma Inn has changed its overflow space to accommodate more guests
Mr Priest said the next two weeks at the Alma Inn – which is run by General Manager James Sullivan and owned by Lee Roberts – will be among the most important of his career.
“I know everything I’ve done before is going to pale in comparison to the kind of numbers we’re going to be doing in the next few weeks,” he said. “It must be an exciting thing.”
In Hayle, Cornwall, Damian Knight, 45 – who runs the Cornubia Inn with his wife Miranda – said the pandemic had changed the “traditional” pub model.
While they’ve spent the money on a covered shelter, up-to-date heating, and furniture, the addition of wifi and a new ordering and payment system are important updates that guests may miss. notice at a glance.
‘It’s one of those things we are used to doing now,’ Mr Knight, who estimated he spent around £ 5,000 to prepare for the latest reopening, told the AP.
Cornubia Inn’s outdoor seating area has been reimagined in various lockdowns
“This is the third time that we have come out of the lockout. Every time we’ve gone out, inside (and) outside, the rules have changed.
“If you open your doors with what you had before, you will be left behind.
“I think people expect a little more too – because they can only sit and eat outside, they expect it to be a little more comfortable.
“The traditional pattern is that you walk over to the bar, order your pint of beer, hand over the money, go downstairs and sit down at your table. Covid changed that.
“People expect that table service and that little extra, and I think it’s probably brought some pubs more into the modern age.”
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