King's Lynn bar’s new takeaway service offers drinks and snacks
A restaurant and bar in Lynn has diversified during lockdown and started offering takeaway drinks and bar snacks on weekends.
The Rathskeller, on South Quay, had its first trial of the takeaway service on the recent Bank Holiday Weekend, and so far, officials say it has been a “great success”.
James Havers, one of the company directors, said: “Like every business, we are just trying to adapt and we are trying to be safe.
“We don’t want to put our staff at risk, which is part of the reason why we are not doing a takeaway food service at the moment.”
At the moment, the service will only be held on weekends, and is weather-dependent. They will make the announcement of any openings for the takeaway service the night before on their Facebook page.
He added: “We didn’t do this straight away, it was lots of thinking about it and how we can offer people a beer while strolling along the quayside.”
Mr Havers said customers can enter one at a time, buy items, such as hot or cold beverages, ice cream and fudge, and pay for them contactlessly from behind a screen.
They also have mandatory handwashing for customers prior to entering the premises.
He said, on the first day of the takeaway service they had about 20 customers “which was quite nice as it was really steady”.
But, since opening, The Rathskeller has received advice from police and licensing officials from the borough council regarding crowd control after it closed early on Bank Holiday Monday last week.
Mr Havers said they closed the premises early after a visit from the police, as they “didn’t want to cause an issue”.
A police spokeswoman said the matter was referred to the borough council’s licensing team.
A council spokesman said: “Licensing officers have contacted the proprietor of The Rathskeller regarding social distancing measures required on the site.
“The premises are allowed to be open for the sale of alcohol for takeaway only and not consumption on or near to the site.”
Mr Havers said officials have since visited and are happy with the operation.
Outside of the premises, they have signs reminding people to adhere to social distancing measures, and their benches have been taped over to ensure customers do not stay to consume their food and drinks.
“We have a sign up to explain all the rules to try and get across that if people don’t follow them, we will refuse to sell to them,” Mr Havers added.
It cost the company more than £1,000 to re-open, having spent £600 on sanitiser from local business WhataHoot.
“This wasn’t a fly-by-night operation. We thought about how we were doing this and undertook social distancing measures to do it safely,” Mr Havers said.
“We have a duty of care, and we don’t want people to get ill.”
He said, so far, after the first two weekends of the takeaway service, people have been “very complimentary”.
Mr Havers said this was a “new project” for the company.
“We are just a local business trying to survive in a very tricky situation.”
Although they want the service to be a success, they hope it does not become much busier than it has been so far.
Mr Havers added: “We have a moral obligation to make sure we don’t get too busy.”
In usual circumstances, The Rathskeller would host quiz and music nights in its premises, but since lockdown, these events have been virtual.
They have run a live quiz monthly on their Facebook and last Saturday night they hosted a live stream of their Soul Night with DJ Mark Purdy.
“These are just some other ways we have been trying to adapt,” Mr Havers said.
For more information, visit The Rathskeller Facebook page.
