HospitalityNews

“Playful Solutions” For Social Distancing

As announced this week, pubs, cafes and restaurants in England might be able to reopen for outdoor trade by 22 June 2020 in a bid to #SaveSummer and prevent catastrophic hospitality job losses.

However, as yet since there is clarity for hospitality venues without outdoor spaces one inventive and eclectic venue specialist is planning to implement social distancing rules with the introduction mannequins!

The company said that at its Mr Fogg’s Residence in Mayfair London, which is themed for popular fictional explorer Phileas Fogg, to comply with social distancing rules and keep customers safely apart, it will fill empty seats with dummies dressed in Victorian costume, as though they were characters from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.

Also under consideration prospect of wear bee-keeping suits at Mr Fogg’s House of Botanicals – themed for flowers and fauna – and gas masks as face coverings at both Cahoots sites, the 1940s-themed bars that sit opposite each other in London’s famed Soho. The group also hopes to re-open its 1980s club Maggie’s, as in the late Baroness Thatcher – which it says they will be filled with “inflatable rubber rings to aid party-goers to keep a safe distance whilst dancing”.

Co-founder Charlie Gilkes said: “The top priority for planning our reopening is adapting our ways of working and spaces to the new Covid-secure standards in order to ensure we create safe socialising and working environments in all of our venues. But, crucially for us, this must be done without forgetting, or compromising, what originally drew people into our establishments, and helped us build a loyal following. We do not want to welcome visitors back into spaces that feel sterile, devoid of personality and atmosphere because of the new measures.

Now more than ever before, people will need spaces that spark a sense of escapism and imagination, and we are determined to adapt what we were doing successfully before to the new ways of operating, whilst staying true to what we do best: creating unique and memorable experiences. There is no escaping the fact that the new restrictions are going to pose significant challenges to the way hospitality businesses operate but we are trying our very best with what we can do. Should these playful solutions come to fruition, we will ensure they adhere to official guidelines. We are continuing to monitor the latest government guidance fastidiously, which will determine our eventual decisions on the most appropriate hygiene and safety measures for our reopening.”