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Five things pubs got right on Super Saturday, and five they got wrong

super saturday - Vickie Flores/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
super saturday - Vickie Flores/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Restarting the pub industry on ‘Super Saturday’ was always going to be something of an experiment. Would the punters come out? How would they behave? Would the new safety measures work? Would the cost of reopening be worth it?

According to data from CGA, only 18,277 of a possible 40,575 pubs that could have opened around the country did so; about 45 per cent. Clearly there’s still some hesitation to do with safety concerns when it comes to opening those doors, not to mention delays with supplies and staffing.

On Super Saturday I was reporting in Central London and enjoyed my first drink out in Soho, which provided a good opportunity to observe the various approaches that pubs have taken to post-lockdown procedures. Here’s what worked and what might need rethinking…

The good...

Hand sanitiser

Super Saturday - Jay Williams
Super Saturday - Jay Williams

At every pub I went to there was a bottle of hand sanitiser at the door, clearly visible and accessible. Customers simply weren’t allowed in without using it. On top of that, most establishments I visited had hand-sanitiser stations dotted liberally around the premises and many bathrooms had much more prevalent reminders for patrons to wash their hands than in pre-Covid days.

App ordering

While not every pub and restaurant has quite worked out how to manage app ordering just yet, those systems which were in place seemed to be popular. “Standing at a crowded bar with loads of people has never been a brilliant experience for me anyway,” said one woman I spoke to outside an O’Neill's, which has its own app-based ordering system. “Being able to sit outside and order and have it brought to our table is brilliant. That will definitely be a good thing to come out of this situation.”

Groups of six or less

One of the reopening rules in pubs was that groups of more than six weren’t allowed to sit together. While that might seem disappointing, it worked well in my experience. There was no dodging around massive knots of drinkers who seem to take up the whole space, and I saw little to no rowdy behaviour (at least inside, but we’ll get onto that later…) The fact that groups were banned from moving tables meant that it was easier to manage one-way systems inside. Plus, let’s be honest, how good is a conversation bellowed across more than five people anyway?

Booking a table

Super Saturday - Paul Grover
Super Saturday - Paul Grover

With patrons only being allowed inside pubs if they’d booked a table, walk ins were few to far between. It kills an impromptu pint, sure, but it did mean that those who had booked a table didn’t need to wait and there was no hovering around waiting for someone to leave.

No standing at the bar

Who really enjoys the experience of being crammed at the bar, desperately trying to signal to the bartender that you’re next to be served? Plus, once you do get your drinks, you have to fight your way back through the crowd without spilling them all over yourself. Table service, when it works, feels much more civilised…

The bad...

Table service

That being said, table service is something that will no doubt take a while to get used to. At one pub, I had to wait a solid half hour before a waitress came to take our drinks order and the only reason we were able to get food was because I happened to pass her (socially distanced of course) and ask directly on the way to the loo. On Super Saturday it was all a learning curve for staff and customers – fewer staff on duty and unfamiliar service protocols will all have contributed – but being forgotten at a lonely table feels even worse post-Covid.

One-way systems

At the first pub I went to the one-way system worked. The toilets were in a basement corridor which passed all the way from the back to the front of the pub. The other two venues weren’t so efficient, with just one route to get to and from the bathrooms. That meant a lot of breaking the two-metre rule was necessary on tight staircases, and in one pub I had to go all the way around the outside of the venue and come back in the front door.

Atmosphere and ambience

Sadly, fewer drinkers meant a diminished atmosphere in the pubs I visited. A valiant effort was made by turning up the music to a dull roar but that only made it more difficult to converse (bucking official advice to avoid people having to shout). By contrast, it felt more like the good old pre-Covid days outside on terraces and in pub gardens, but that led to its own problems…

Takeaway pints/outdoor seating

pubs reopening - Paul Grover
pubs reopening - Paul Grover

Every pub I visited over the weekend was doing takeaway pints and in Soho there were 17 streets which had been fully pedestrianised to allow for more outdoor drinking. Photographs from later in the evening showed just how busy this made the streets of central London. Perhaps in less metropolitan areas it would work better, but it ended up looking like a street party in Soho with precious little adherence to social distancing regulations.

Enforcement of social distancing

The trouble, I observed, with a lot of these social distancing plans was that enforcement was so impossible they may as well have not had them at all. Sanitiser is all well and good working to keep people socially distant in outdoor areas is a much bigger challenge. Equally, I saw no protective equipment worn by pub staff, whereas at a local restaurant, every waiter wore masks and gloves.

Did you visit your local on 'Super Saturday'? What did you think of the new rules and restrictions? Let us know in the comments section.