Safety with a Healthy Sprinkling of Hospitality!

So, this post-COVID hospitality world!

I have thoroughly missed being out and about and enjoying HOSPITALITY! I've missed the people, the food, the vibes and so have been really looked forward to eating out again.

I've had a number of experiences over the last few weeks and its been interesting to see how different businesses have interpreted the guidelines.

In every single case I've felt SAFE, albeit with different levels of that hospitality *thing*.

One experience over the weekend was very safe…but also immensely clinical. So very many missed opportunities for customer engagement [starter ordered arrived without the accompanying sauce, and I only found out that they had none of the sauce after the food was brought and the server had scarpered back behind the tills! I probably wouldn't have ordered it had I known] and sadly, absolutely zero other interaction from the team for the rest of our visit. I left feeling full (food was pretty good) but a bit flat and not immensely anxious to return.

Yesterday, I headed into London to see some folk and after a full training session a burger from Honest Burgers Ltd was absolutely called for. We headed to The Cut - Honest's exclusively chicken restaurant (which is a TOTAL must if you haven't already tried it) and at the end I positively skipped out with complete delight!

The team just had it absolutely bang on. In fact, I would almost have called it normal. The food was, as always, spot on. But the difference was with the team. Just the two front of house but they chatted to us, and all the other customers as they normally would; at all times remaining 1m+ apart. They didn’t wear masks, but we had to sanitise our hands on entry and leave details for track and trace. They have no menus but the menu board is big and bold and easy peasy to use; plus the staff chatted through and made recommendations and took the opportunity to take us on that journey. Obviously the restaurant wasn’t at capacity or particularly busy but I was made to feel that they were on it and didn't for a second worry about whether I was safe.

On my way back to the station, I felt I needed to pass the feedback to Phil. Phil is one of the most down to earth operators; and is beautifully old fashioned when it comes to hospitality and his response was – "It needs to feel as normal as possible for those customers who want it to be normal!" or something along those lines and that's EXACTLY it. Eating out is as much about how you feel when you're there as it is about the food.

But there are options for those who aren’t comfortable going INTO a restaurant where the team don’t wear masks and still take actual orders and still actually deliver the food to the table. Their delivery and take away business has boomed and has shown just what can be done.

And, in this post-Covid world the changes made and precautions taken, much like a habit, need to be sustainable long term. Who knows how long this C word is going to haunt us for, but based on those two experiences of mine, less than 24 hours apart across 2 different restaurants, I know where I will 100% be going back again. And again. And again.

So just a massive shout out to Phil and Tom and all the boys and girls at Honest. Thank you for making it feel ok yesterday! 

Much love

Kerry x