Busy start as Derry gets back down to business

The autumnal weather failed to dampen consumer sentiment and business was reportedly brisk at several eateries and pubs.

Traders spoken to by the ‘Journal’ reported that coronavirus anxiety had not significantly suppressed demand.

After months of lockdown, diners, keen to get back to some semblance of normality, quickly availed of the newly granted freedom to enjoy a meal and a drink with friends.

Sean Harrigan, head chef and proprietor of The Sooty Olive, said: “We were so busy. We were fully booked Friday, fully booked Saturday, and then Sunday was really busy all day again. We have fifty booked already for Wednesday night. It’s incredible.”

Daniel Kerrigan, manager of Molly Malone’s, said: “It went grand. We were definitely busy all weekend.”

Mr. Kerrigan said it was great to be back but admitted the new normal will take a little getting used to.

“It’s strange times even for the staff. It’s trying to just sort of get the customers into the new way of working. They have to stay at their tables. They have to have food. They can’t be coming to the bar. They can’t be up mixing with other customers and stuff like that,” he said.

Declan Moore, who owns Claude’s café, reported that business had not been quite as steady as he had expected.

Claude’s had been trading as a take-away and doing a good trade throughout lockdown.

“I assume, retrospectively, there were no restaurants open and you weren’t allowed to sit-in and our business was operating as a take-away so we benefited,” he said.

He thinks people have been eagerly anticipating their first post-lockdown restaurant meal and predicted late evening, sit-down establishments will see a surge in the first weeks of the newly reliberalised night-time economy.

“I think people are still booking somewhere at night and foregoing lunch in a café. The tables have turned. Places like ours people will give a miss because for months they haven’t been able to go to a restaurant and sit in,” he said.

The revitalisation of the hospitality sector, meanwhile, is also having a positive knock-on effect for retail.

Fergal Rafferty, manager of Foyleside Shopping Centre, said: “It’s all been really good with the food quarter opening last Friday. It was great to see that and for people to come in and have a coffee as part of their shopping trip.”

Many of Derry’s pubs, restaurants and cafés took the final step to stage five of the COVID-19 lockdown recovery on Friday and reopened for the first time since March.

And there was a palpable buzz as diners were permitted to enjoy that long postponed dinner date with friends and family.

Mr. Harrigan said that despite reducing capacity to enable social distancing the Waterside restaurant was extremely busy.

“We kept it reduced. We lost about four tables and just kept the numbers down but on Saturday we did about 90 people. On a normal Saturday we would do about 130,” he said.

Mr. Harrigan said he believed people were just keen to get back to enjoy good food and socialise. And it was apparent that three months without restaurant quality steak was long enough for many patrons!

“I went through double the amount of beef I’d normally go through on an ordinary weekend. Everybody was going out for steaks!” he said.

Mr. Harrigan said things went smoothly, notwithstanding the fact diners and staff were coming to terms with a new way of operating.

“There were no pre drinks in the lounge and no after drinks in the lounge. Everybody was just really nice and really understanding. It was completely brilliant. I couldn’t be more happy about how it went. The customers were brilliant and the staff were brilliant,” he said.

Mr. Moore said things were quieter than he had expected at the weekend. He put this down to the reopening of restaurants and pub restaurants for the first time in weeks but thinks things will pick up again.

“It’s a crazy, changing thing. I didn’t think we’d be half as busy as we were in the last couple of months and I was surprised and amazed that on Friday, the first day last week, and then Saturday and Sunday, it was okay. I was just expecting that people would en masse be coming out and being glad to sit in.

“I think after the novelty of eating out at restaurants wears off, I think, in the next week or so it will swing back again. Everybody will get their slice of the pie again,” he said.

To facilitate the return of sit-down customers Mr. Moore has made a number of discreet changes to the indoor seating and furnishing.

“We’ve been fairly subtle. We’ve made all the changes, we’ve had a risk assessment done. We’ve taken out seats. We’ve included sanitiser stations.

“Our staff are aware of their responsibilities. The floor’s marked but it still looks the same. The diner should have that same experience.”

Mr. Kerrigan said: “It’s strange for the bar staff. The first thing when a customer walks in the door they expect the customer to approach the bar and order a drink. The bar staff have to realise people have to come in, be booked, sit down and be waited on. It’s a totally new way of working for everybody. There’s no mingling.

"It’s strange but it has to be like this for a while and it’s just about getting everybody into the same routine,” he said.

Mr. Rafferty said things are now really beginning to pick-up and the resurgence in the hospitality sector will help.

“It’s been a positive start to the whole end of the lockdown so let’s hope that continues. We still have a number of shops to open but very few. We are almost 80 per cent open at this stage. In the next couple of weeks we should be at 100 per cent. We’ve seen a nice steady increase in shops opening and customer footfall coming back into the centre again.

“Many loyal shoppers are back in again and we are delighted to see them and welcome them back. There’s a new way of shopping. People are more or less adhering to social distancing and I suppose it’s going to be the new way forward. I think it’s going to work out okay.”