The new 10pm curfew is a disaster, say owners of Michelin-starred restaurants
Not since their school days have the members of London’s social set been expected to be tucked up so early. Curfew at ten? Why, the evening’s only just beginning! At ten o’clock, while everybody else is warming milk for cocoa, the beautiful people in the city’s restaurants and bars are still only half way through their omakase sushi menu and debating where to go on to afterwards.
That’s all set to change from this Thursday, however, when the new rule, announced today by Boris Johnson, comes in, ordering all pubs, bars and restaurants across England to shut from 10pm. And that cut-off is not, alas, last orders; it’s chairs-on-the-tables, floor-being-swept-around-you, time-for-beddy-byes closed. The new rule will very likely stay in force for six months.
If it’s bad news for London’s drinkers and diners who’ve been doing their bit to eat out to help out in the safest, most Covid-secure setting, then it’s terrible news for the city’s restaurateurs whose businesses have been dealt blow after blow by the pandemic.
Newcomer Black Book in Soho, founded by super sommeliers Gearoid Devaney and Xavier Rousset would ordinary be just the place to linger until late in the night over a bottle from their ‘black book’ of wines from private collections. The new rule, says Rousset, who had to let go of half the staff immediately after the PM's announcement, is ‘a blow, for sure’. “Holding a late night license in Soho is like gold dust these days, but of course it won’t mean much come Thursday.” The solution: start earlier.
Just as Monday to Wednesday was the new weekend during the Eat Out To Help Out scheme in August, dare we hope that 6pm will be the new 8pm? In fine-dining restaurants, where a tasting menu with matching wines will rarely wrap up much before 10pm, a meal is intended to be a leisurely, luxurious affair. Bills quickly reach four figures. It’s not something one wants to rush.
At one-Michelin starred Hide in Mayfair, they’ve responded by bringing forward the start of dinner service at Hide Above, their more formal offering, to 5.30pm. CEO and co-founder Tatiana Fokina anticipates more guests now choosing the shorter five-course menu, £110, over the full £140 eight-course tasting menu. She also expects guests to gravitate toward having the full Hide experience for lunch ‘when they are not limited by time constraints’.
Sadly, the new rule puts paid to the pleasure of post-prandial cocktails at Hide’s seductive, subterranean bar Hide Below, there are always aperitifs (from 5pm) or a bottle of Yquem to go from Hide’s wine shop Hedonism. Feedback from Hide’s guests suggests that the Hide at Home delivery service will be in even greater demand. “We are glad we kept it going after lockdown,” Fokina says.
At Gymkhana, last tables will now be at 7.45pm instead of 10.30pm. “We’ve effectively lost a whole sitting,” says Jyotin Sethi, co-founder and CEO of JKS Restaurants. “We’re already running at 25 per cent down because of distancing.” The group’s casual restaurants can take tables as late as 8.30; it’s their fine-dining restaurants that are impacted. “We will bring our opening hours forward from 6pm to 5pm but will customers come out earlier. I’m not sure. That’s the unknown.
"We don’t know yet what impact this messaging will have on customer confidence. Will people eat out earlier or will the curfew affect people’s willingness to eat out at all? We’re reacting day by day, week by week, to customer behaviours. We saw massive spikes during Eat Out To Help Out and the momentum has been building week on week. This is a kick in the teeth.” What he does know is that guests at Gymkhana, which holds one Michelin star, will get the full experience, even as they adapt their model. Their delivery and meal kits have already been a huge success.
If the West End is going to be more sleep tight than late night, the picture’s different in neighbourhood areas where the WFH-crowd is already adapting to early suppers. At Julie’s in Notting Hill, chef patron Shay Cooper, is reviewing opening hours to encourage more guests to dine earlier and is seeing an increase in lunch trade (so much for ‘working’ from home).
It’s a similar story at Chucs Restaurants whose neighbourhood Italians tend to fill by 6.30pm or 7pm. Guests still lingering over Barolo come 10pm can take the last of their bottle home with them (where off-sales are permitted, of course).
But what about going ‘out-out’. Is that even possible? Could we see the return of the long lunch? At Seabird, the gorgeous rooftop restaurant at the Hoxton, Southwark, they’re launching a new ‘Afternoon Sea’ long lunch on Sundays involving towers of sparkling seafood and magnums of champagne. At Dinings SW3, where the luxurious sushi, sashimi and sake warrant several hours of attention, executive chef Masaki Sugisaki is now planning to open the entire day.
Brian Bendix, CEO of the Billionaire Life group stresses that ‘safety must prevail’. “Our group is known for having vision, creativity and flexibility in adapting to new circumstances and we react swiftly. These new regulations give us the opportunity to create new experiences at a time when memorable moments are in short supply”. For example, Storm Mollison’s DJ sets at Sumosan Twiga in Knightsbridge will now start at 6pm instead of 9pm and at Crazy Pizza in Marylebone will introduce ‘Crazy Hours’ between lunch and dinner. Brunch is going to be bigger than ever.
It’s too soon to know how customers and restaurants will adapt. One thing’s for sure, however, the Three Martini lunch has never sounded so appealing.
Read more:
When can I host events again? The new Covid-19 rules for birthdays, anniversaries and small parties
The £500 home tasting menu from Hedonism and Hide: is it worth it for a birthday or anniversary?
How we can dine like kings on Michelin-star produce - at low prices
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