To say 2020 has been a tough year would be a significant understatement – and it is no secret that the hospitality industry has had a particularly challenging time! With lockdowns, restrictions and tier systems being introduced from every direction hospitality has had to adapt and adjust at speed to meet these new requirements and ultimately, keep their loyal customers safe. So, as the year (finally!) draws to a close, we wanted to reflect on the creative ways that our Great Inns have innovated, adapted and risen to the enormous challenges of 2020.
When Boris Johnson called ‘last orders’ and asked pubs, bars and restaurants to close their doors back in March, our Great Inns faced uncertainty. Like so many other businesses across the country, The Bell Inn realised that its best option was to offer some form of takeaway service. They went above and beyond serving everything from Afternoon Tea boxes to hearty Sunday roast dinners, ready-made take-out cocktails to full firkins of real ale.
They also created recipe bags to help customers recreate tasty Bell Inn favourites at home. Each bag contained both fresh and store cupboard ingredients and an easy to follow recipe card for the perfect home-cooked meal. Whether customers wanted to recreate their Sirloin Steaks, Veggie Wellingtons, Salmon or Seabass – The Bell’s recipe bags were a creative way of creating income during lockdown for both them and their trusted suppliers.
Similar to The Bell Inn, when asked to close in March both The Rose & Crown and The Lamb Inn realised that they needed to adapt their businesses. Panic buying in the supermarkets meant that some shoppers could not find the items they needed on the shelves and the closure of pubs and restaurants meant that many supplier’s supply chains had almost disappeared.
Aiming to solve both of these problems, both inns set up community shops serving fruit, veg, dairy, meat, fish and more! These community shops helped their local communities to buy the food they needed, kept local suppliers in business, stopped the food from going to waste and created income for the inns. The Rose & Crown also made deliveries to people who were shielding to make sure their whole community was catered for.
In 2020, we became accustomed to the news that yet another annual event had been canceled. We also became overnight experts on video conferencing, online entertainment and virtual get-togethers. When Holkham Hall’s North Norfolk Food Festival was inevitably canceled in June, they switched the usual event to a virtual food festival instead.
Their food festival fans could join their online community and tune-in to enjoy a host of cookery demonstrations, interviews and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of local and national chefs, championing the very best of Norfolk’s suppliers. As part of the Holkham Hall estate, The Victoria Inn took centre stage with Exec Head Chef, Michael Chamberlain delivering cookery demonstrations and championing the benefits of foraging and using local produce. More importantly, this event raised money for Hospitality Action, who have been working overtime this year to support our beloved hospitality industry.
The end of the first lockdown meant that our Inns could reopen their doors from the 4th July and customers could once again dine-in, instead of takeaway. Albeit reopening came with a whole host of guidelines and restrictions and a new normal for dining out was introduced. Physical distancing meant that the number of tables inside our inn’s restaurants was significantly reduced. The Hundred House responded to this challenge by opening up their extremely popular outdoor street food kitchen which included Kadai Fire bowls, a Bertha Charcoal Oven and a Stonebaked Pizza Oven!
What started as ‘Street Food Saturdays’ where customers could sample a selection of small plates, soon turned into a daily affair with pizzas, tacos, burgers and kebabs on offer for diners to choose from. They even hosted live-fire masterclasses where Live Fire Expert, Adam Purnell and Exec Chef, Stuart Phillips demonstrated how to Roast, Grill, Smoke, Bake & BBQ over charcoal and wood using ancient Kadai fire bowls, Big Barrel Drums and a beast of a Weber BBQ!
After a brief return to some sort of normal during the summer, November saw the return of Lockdown for hospitality venues in England. As they had to close their doors once again, Crust and Craft, the team from The Shibden Mill, opened up a pop-up pie shop serving delicious homemade pies and pastries for customers to pop in the oven at home.
The team repurposed and kitted out an old horsebox and baked a variety of pies ready for their opening weekend. Having planned to serve pies 9:00 am – 3:00 pm both Saturday and Sunday, they were completely sold out within the first 4 hours of opening! Having proved that they were on to a winner, they came back the following weekend with barista coffee, bacon and sausage butties and of course more pies.
As mentioned, this year has been unbelievably challenging for all of our inns and we are so proud of the ways they have adapted their businesses. This is just a snippet of the measures that they have taken following the disruptions of Covid-19 and we are crossing our fingers that next year the traditional hospitality that we all know and love can properly return.
