After opening on Saturday 4th July, it's been amazing to welcome you all back to baresca after what has been a difficult few months in lockdown.
Plenty of familiar faces have returned and it's been great to see you all, but what has it been like for the team to return? We spoke to the manager Hollie Kirkham
What has it been like to be back at baresca after the temporary closure?
It’s really been great! I was so ready to get back to work - getting everything ready to open again and preparing everything was a challenge but being back has been fab.
Generally, everyone has been so happy returning.
It’s been lovely catching up with the regulars and we’ve had lots of new customers too. August has been a bit of a whirlwind!
What’s in place to help customers feel safe and do they help you feel safe at work?
All of our tables are socially distanced - we’ve been really lucky to have the space to utilise, with our cellar bar being the biggest section.
We have disposable menus, all of our team are wearing visors or masks, we're cleaning and sanitising touchpoints around the restaurant hourly, sanitiser stations are installed all around, for both us and the customers, and (of course) lots of handwashing.
What have the customers been like coming back to baresca?
Generally, everyone has been so happy to be able to eat out again! The eat out to help out scheme has made us really busy throughout August, and we’ve seen a definite increase in people starting to feel more confident about coming out.
It’s been really lovely - so many people have asked how we’re getting on and said how nice it is to see us again and see the restaurant doing well.
Loads of people have said how much they’ve missed baresca and that they’ve been following us and that we were the first restaurant they’d come back to.
One of the benefits of moving to disposable menus has been the daily specials, what has been your favourite?
That’s a hard one! I’ve really enjoyed having different fresh specials and it’s been really good to have ever-changing vegan options for me.
I think my favourite so far has to be the roasted aubergine with whipped ‘feta’ and confit tomatoes. Although I’m also really loving the Korean fried cauliflower this week too.