Brighton Local Restaurants and Shops Learned to Adapt to Pandemic

Brighton and Hove City Council had already received a series of applications from food shops in the city requesting for variations in their licenses.

The restaurants and shops continue to adapt to the challenges brought by the pandemic by proposing to sell alcoholic beverages alongside takeaways.

Kitgum Kitchen in Preston Road, Brighton, which opened its first-ever permanent diner in February upon years of operating pop-up kitchens, found it necessary to reevaluate its business structure.

They are applying for a license to deliver booze along with their newly emerging takeaway business and to also serve alcohol to clients when they come to collect their food.

Fayaz Amlani, who owns the restaurant with his wife Susie, said: “A few weeks ago, we decided to remove the tables and chairs from the restaurant, now in our living room, to enable more space to prepare for our new Kitgum@home business. We very much needed some space, but it was just as gutting; we placed a tremendous amount of work into reaching where we are, and now it begins to feel as if we’re starting up an entirely new business from the ground up.

“But this is not inherently bad. This week, we are going to launch our website, www.kitgumkitchen.com, that is effectively a webshop, and we have some awesome and interesting ideas to come up with. We aim to expand our client base, broaden our Kitgum product range through sauces and pickles, and showcase guest partners through our website.

Extending Off License

The Dyke Alehouse along Dyke Road was only accessible for a limited time before the lockdown struck, but is now seeking to extend its license until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

“But we still do not even know what the restrictions will be. It’s getting pretty tight right now when we’re supposedly going to open up.”

“When it’s confined in the pub only, we ‘re going to try and find any other revenue to compensate for the losses.

Social Distancing Rules

Neighborhood restaurants and shops are adapting to the new social distancing rules by launching deliveries and implementing queuing rules.

Bhavin Patel of Guyatri News on Southover Street is one of the few who implemented a one-on-one system, and he placed plastic cones on the road outside just to remind people where they can queue safely.

Several shops have put staff on the door making sure that there are not too many individuals inside the store at the very same time.

Some cafes are still open, but they don’t allow anyone to sit and dine in. Flour Pot Bakeries all over Brighton and Hove are fully accessible, but only offers takeaways, while telling customers to line up appropriately.

Food and Supplies Delivery

Brighton’s Curry Leaf Café aims to help everybody to stay calm and carry on in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic by creating a new delivery service and contributing a part of the proceeds to the NHS. A special cold delivery scheme was launched a few weeks back.

Customers can also order refrigerated versions of their award-winning meals online and deliver them completely for free in reheatable, recyclable packages, ready to keep on their home refrigerator or freezer, all with substantial savings relative to their hot meals.

Their authentic, gourmet-cooked curries, street food, and tandoor grilled meats remain fresh in the fridge for a minimum of 3 days and it can be stored in a freezer the day of the purchase.

Meanwhile, a Brighton takeaway service has joined forces with a network of neighborhood newsagents to supply grocery supplies to the local community.

Dinner2Go contacted independent convenience stores all over Brighton and Hove, that still had an abundant supply of products including toilet rolls and pasta.

The company has also seen a rise among traditional businesses approaching them after the Prime Minister announced that the citizens must avoid public places. And the demand is so huge that the owners of Dinner2Go want to recruit new drivers.

Sohail Rahim, the owner of Dinner2Go, said, “We’ve decided to team up with 18 different local newsagents that have loads of food and grocery items in stock.”

“We deliver what their customers need, within a mile of every store.”