Even when the nation’s 47,000 drinking establishments can go back to work, some worry that half of them won’t be able to – a staggering loss to the communities that socialized and gathered there
This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.Richard Muir and his son, Matthew, hold boxes for delivery at the Muirhouse Brewery in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The brewery has been working seven days a week delivering beer to local customers, but the future of their family-owned pub in Burton-upon-Trent, the Weighbridge Inn, is unclear.
The Burds have been trying to sell takeout meals during the lockdown, but that brings in less than half of what they need to break even. He recently put a tape measure on the floor to see how many people he could serve at a time under physical-distancing rules. His best guess was 12, more than 100 less than a typical Friday. “It’s just not financially viable,” he said.
Mr. Antona is on a government committee looking into how the hospitality sector can emerge from the lockdown, and CAMRA has sent a questionnaire to its 190,000 members seeking input on physical distancing. “We want to understand what their attitudes will be about going back to the pub, post-COVID. And what restrictions, if any at all, would make them come back to the pub,” he said.
“The pub culture is slowly dwindling,” said Nigel Stevens, 56, who runs the Wyvill Arms in rural Yorkshire with his mother, brother and sister. The Stevens family has been in the pub business for three generations. “You don’t have your outlet where you would go into a pub and you would stand there and have a drink and have a chitchat,” he said. “There’s not the quantity of people coming through the doors who want to drink and socialize as in the old pub days.
The Muirs also operate Muirhouse Brewery, which makes craft beer for dozens of pubs, and they had 100 casks on hand when the lockdown started. “I was worried that it would all have to be chucked,” Mr. Muir said. Fortunately, the family has launched a thriving delivery service, offering cases containing nine pints of beer, and the casks haven’t gone to waste.
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