An Edinburgh bar owner has asked the capital's drinkers to 'be kind' as bars reopen for indoor hospitality across Scotland today in line with the country's lockdown rules easing.
When Uno Mas Bar opened in February 2020, co-owners Sian Buchan and John Mclellan could not have foreseen the unprecedented impact of the global pandemic, which would soon claim over 40,000 lives in the UK alone and bring the economy to a standstill.
Uno Mas, which means "one more" in Spanish, is located in the basement of 4 Picardy Place and the site was previously a nightclub, operating as LGBT club GHQ until 2012.
The business is now set to reopen its doors this Thursday 20 May.
Now Sian, co-owner of late-night cocktail bar, has issued a message to pub-going punters, reminding locals that hospitality rules are in place for a reason - and that breaking them puts all of the industry at risk of tighter measures.
"By now people should all be aware of what is expected of them when it comes to being in public," Sian told Edinburgh Live .
"The need to wear masks when leaving or arriving, staying seated when allocated a table and ordering from your table instead of coming to the bar shouldn't be something that we have to explain anymore - but we will.
"It's a huge part of the job when people don't listen or pay attention to these rules - we shouldn't have to repeating ourselves or running after customers to tell them to get their mask on when walking about our premises.
"We don't want the freedoms that we've been granted from today to be revoked from people's behaviours."
Sian continued: "Staff are super nervous about returning to work and lockdown for bar staff was just as anxiety-inducing for them as it was for everyone else.
" We want to keep everyone safe, if we're telling people not to sit at certain tables, it's because we haven't cleaned it yet or it may be booked.
"If we're asking you to wait a couple of extra minutes for things, there will be a reason for it. Also, we're all human - we may forget something or be slightly out of practice - if you'd been off of your job for 7 months, you'd be a bit rusty too.
"We'll be nice to you, we just ask that you're nice to us. We are trying our best. Please be kind.
"As is painted in our male toilets - DON'T BE A D**K."
From today in Scotland people can meet indoors in groups of six from up to three households. Outdoors, up to eight people from eight households can mix and pubs and restaurants can serve alcohol indoors until 22:30.
