My Week: My chefs ask me what to tell their families – closing us with just 48 hours’ notice is criminal

It’s Monday, December 14, and we are gearing up for what should be the busiest week of the year for any restaurant. In the back of our minds, we all thought Tier 3 could be coming but I don’t think any of us imagined we would have to close with so little notice. My restaurant, Sam’s Riverside, is fully booked for every lunch and dinner this week, so I’ve placed orders with our suppliers accordingly. 

For restaurants, Mondays are all about getting ahead for the week and the kitchen preps as much food as possible. But at 3.30pm we are given less than 48 hours’ notice before having to close. Immediately we start to call our guests and try to move them in to tonight’s dinner or to Tuesday, where possible. We also have 150 booked for Christmas Day and 100 for our New Year’s Eve dinner. My business is based around making guests happy and I hate having to let anyone down, but as we haven’t been told how long we will be in Tier 3, we have no way to avoid it.  

Tuesday is incredibly busy as we try to safely host as many guests as possible before closing. With so much joy and festivity in the air one could almost forget that this is our last service until who knows when. In fact, it’s the busiest day’s trading since we reopened and all done while sticking to correct Covid procedures, proving what a safe environment a restaurant can be. Over the last few months we have invested thousands of pounds in our Covid safety measures.

On Wednesday I wake up feeling incredibly depressed and with a horrible feeling of helplessness, but I have to pull myself out of bed and try to find the energy to plan our click and collect and delivery offering, not to mention finding a use for 500 Christmas crackers. Somehow, we have to try to keep the wheels turning, if we are going to have any chance of survival. Like so many other restaurateurs, I had my chefs asking me what they’ll tell their families. My head chef Ashley asked if he needed to place the order for turkeys, and the worst thing is that I just don’t have the answers — I have no control. Even more maddening is the realisation that while restaurants are forced to close yet again, the rest of London is carrying on as normal — hordes of people on public transport and cramming into department stores. If putting us in to Tier 3 is really the right thing to do for long-term benefit, then I support it. But giving us less than 48 hours is criminal. There will be a huge amount of food wastage across London restaurants, which is just shameful and so unnecessary. I’m lucky to have Sam’s Larder, our little shop around the corner, which will remain open, and we can make use of anything that won’t be on our click and collect menu, but not everyone has that advantage.  

The focus now is on our click and collect menu, which will include Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. This is the third time we have had to close the restaurant and this time I can’t tell my customers or my team when we will reopen. Many are at breaking point and I know it is going to be a very worrying Christmas for us all. In all honesty, I suspect there will be further lockdowns in the new year and again it will be small businesses and teams like mine that will suffer the brunt. Let’s hope 2021 is far brighter.