With restaurants facing a Valentine’s Day of empty tables under lockdown restrictions, one eatery in Birmingham is launching an in-car fine dining experience for customers to enjoy three courses from their vehicle.
Varanasi, a high-end Indian restaurant in the city centre, will serve a starter, main course, rice, naan and dessert on trays delivered direct to customers’ cars, in a venture thought to be the first of its kind in the country.
“We thought people were getting tired of just getting a boring old takeaway now, so we thought let’s think of something a little bit out of the box, within Covid rules and regulations, to give customers a pleasant experience,” said Abdul Wahab, the general manager at the restaurant on Broad Street.
The offering, first reported in Birmingham Live, is styled on business class aeroplane meals and will come complete with floral garnishing and a lemon fresh wipe.
“In business class, they like to serve you nice food, it’s nicely presented, so we thought, why not replicate the same idea?” said Wahab. “A lot of the time restaurants cook food and just slap it in the takeaway box and send it out. We are going to actually garnish everything and present it nicely so that when you get it, you’d want to eat it straight away.”
The food would be presented as it would be in the restaurant, except everything – from the tray to the cutlery – is disposable, to keep contact with staff to a minimum, Wahab said, although he was unsure whether the items were recyclable.
Customers have to phone in advance to order and pay for their meal to be brought out to their vehicle in a car park behind the restaurant, all of which Wahab insists is within the current coronavirus rules. “The lockdown rules say you can serve takeaway food and take food to customer’s cars, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.
The restaurant does not own the car park, but says it has secured permission from the car park owner to use it for this purpose.
Since the start of the third national lockdown on 6 January, restaurants have been required to close with the exception of takeaways (which can remain open until 11pm), click-and-collect and drive-through services. A Birmingham city council spokesperson said hospitality businesses were not allowed to provide food for consumption on their premises.
Varanasi, which has been closed since the start of November, will be running its “business class dining” service on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from next week, just in time for what it hopes will be a Valentine’s Day rush.
Wahab said: “Everybody will probably want to go out and get a takeaway on Valentine’s Day, so we thought why not take up the opportunity to grasp a bit of business while people are hungry to eat out?”
