Galloway’s hospitality businesses have had to restructure the way they operate because of Covid restrictions – while trying to make a profit at the same time.
Abbey Cottage in New Abbey is one restaurant taking plenty of bookings. But what’s involved behind the scenes?
Jacquie Wilson is a partner in the business along with her mum.
She’s had to juggle staff rotas, timings of bookings and physical distancing of diners. On top of that comes the need to ensure everybody coming in follows proper hygiene procedures.
She said: “It’s been manic.
“At the end of the day you cash up and think ‘Oh my God, is that all we’ve taken?’
“We have to follow the test and protect system, there’s extra cleaning materials, hand sanitiser, it all adds up.
“Then there’s the organisation of the customers to point them in the right direction to their table.
“I spent weeks and weeks getting all that in place.”
Waitress Ellie Arnold said: “We have installed a gadget triggered when people coming in break the beam which shouts out ‘please sanitise your hands!’
“Before we got it a lot of customers would just wander in and say they couldn’t see any signs. Now everybody is sanitising their hands which is great.”
Waitress Ailsa Millar said: “When we came back we were not really sure about how things would be,
Cook and general assistant Shona Hannah said: “Sometimes it can be quite emotional. We had a person from Lockerbie who hadn’t been out the house because of illness and then Covid. They decided to come here and thoroughly enjoyed it and felt really safe.”
