THE MEASURES WE ARE TAKING TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF OUR STAFF AND GUESTS

Update: As of new government guidelines 20/9/20, it is now a legal requirement for all guests to wear a mask upon arrival and during any movement around the restaurant. Only when seated at the table is it appropriate to remove your masks. We understand that this may seem excessive, but it has been deemed necessary in order to prevent the spread of the virus, and ask kindly that all guests comply with these guidelines.

We are delighted to open our doors once more. 

We have taken a month to take stock of the current climate, to review the necessary steps to make Where the Light Gets In a safe place for our employees to work and a comfortable and relaxing place for our guests to enjoy an evening.

Our measures are stringent, but the gesture is subtle. We want our guests to feel relaxed and hopefully, for an evening at least, escape the anxieties that have challenged us all over the past 5 months.

Our Protocol can be best followed from the beginning of our day.

Firstly, we change our clothes when we arrive at the restaurant to limit risk of spreading germs. Our uniforms are stored in zip locked bags to transport to the restaurant or in a personal locker at the restaurant itself. 

A daily check in with the whole team at this point ensures that everyone is feeling well and has displayed no corona related symptoms. We stress to our team that if symptoms are felt during their personal time away from the restaurant they do not come to work and inform us of said symptoms at the earliest convenience. 

A robust sanitiser is used throughout the day by the kitchen team after each task is carried out and the dining room is cleaned with the necessary products before service taking care to sanitise all contact points. During this period disposable gloves are worn at all times. 

In the Kitchen our aprons are changed a second time at the beginning of our evening service and the kitchen is deep cleaned with a regulation sanitiser.

The table is set with a cutlery roll before the guest is seated. Here the guest will find all cutlery necessary for the evening which has been prepared in strict sanitary conditions before service.

Upon arrival our team will greet the guests and briefly explain our policy. Which is as follows.

Tables are spaced to meet social distancing requirements. We welcome a maximum of six guests every thirty minutes to ensure there is no grouping at the door or in our lobby and we have removed our lounge area as an extra precautionary measure. 

We ask that guests remain in their seats for the duration of the night unless they feel the need to take some air or use the bathroom, in which case we ask that only one guest use the facilities at any given time. 

The bathroom will be routinely sanitised every 30 minutes.

Sanitiser is provided on the tables and the team are all equipped with bottles of the same sanitiser for use after each table has been visited. The same sanitiser will be to hand in the bathroom. 

We accept no cash at this point and if a bill has to be settled at the end of the evening, we will bring a pdq machine which will be sanitised after each use. 

We work in an open kitchen and as such we are already sensitive to the rigours of hygiene throughout service. We are prone to make spontaneous adjustments to the seasoning of our dishes throughout the night to ensure balance and quality remain. For now, we will use bamboo spoons that are compostable which will be disposed of after one use. By no means do we encourage single use items but in these strange times it is a rigour that we deem necessary for the safety of our team and our guests.

At Where the Light Gets In we aim to set an intimate environment and we have always held a deep resonance for the generosity one emits and receives through true hospitality. We are a team of narrators, with each dish and producer commanding a different tale. This passing of gastronomic lore is pivotal to our way of cooking and serving. As a result, we have decided not to wear face masks. Our guests will be visited by multiple chefs and servers through the evening, but we will keep a distance that we feel is within reason. If at any point any of our guests feel uncomfortable with the distance or repeated presence at the table, we will take extra precautionary measure in serving. A side table will be used as a conduit between the server and guest.

Our team have been thoroughly trained in these precautionary measures but more importantly have also been a part of creating these systems. We believe the inclusion of their concerns helps us to cover all grounds and keep a broader perspective of this unknown situation in sight.

Photo taken pre-pandemic.