Three months ago, The Piano Works Grouo began its #UKGrandOutdoorCafe journey with the vision of turning the UK’s pavements and streets into fabulous al fresco dining areas – safely restarting the hospitality industry and allowing the public to enjoy physically distanced meals and drinks outside during the Summer.
Today, the firm has shared the news that the campaign has been a success. The Government has just passed the Business and Planning Act 2020, legislation to set up a fast-track approval for restaurants and bars to set up tables and chairs in spaces outside of their premises.
They will also be dropping the usual 28-day consultation period, supporting already permitted restaurants, bars and pubs with alcohol licenses to sell drinks for the public to take away. The public consultation period will be seven days, followed by a seven-day determination period meaning the approval would be granted within two weeks. The application fees are capped at £100.
Over 150 restaurants, pub, bar and café operators representing over 1,000 venues UK wide pledged their support for the campaign including The Piano Works, Prezzo, Pizza Express, D&D Restaurants, The Breakfast Club, Mission Mars, Revolution Bars, Dirty Martini, Brat and Kiln, along with industry bodies including UKHospitality and the Night Time Industries Association.
Design My Night has joined the campaign, offering up its Soda platform free of charge for participating operators to sell £25 gift vouchers to their customers.
Operators will be offering their voucher at face value and are either adding a complimentary small glass of wine, small beer or single spirit and mixer, or doubling your £25 spend so your £25 voucher is worth £50. £2.50 of these vouchers will be donated towards free vouchers which the UK Grand Summer Outdoor Café is making available to key works through the Blue Light Card.
Leading tech marketing companies, Eagle Eye Solutions and Wireless Social are supporting the campaign by turning donations into food and drink vouchers for the 150 participating venues and sending these directly to frontline workers via Blue Light Card App – a UK wide reward and discount network for our emergency services, NHS and care home workers.
A key part of the campaign now is fundraising for food and drink vouchers, so our NHS and frontline heroes can enjoy a well-earned, complimentary experience at the Grand Outdoor Café.
Donations can also be made via: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ukgrandsummeroutdoorcafe.
Tristan Moffat, Operations Director at The Piano Works, said, “When we first proposed the #UKGrandOutdoorCafe, it seemed like a pipe dream. Two months later, here we are! We are beyond delighted and excited that the government has allowed the campaign to become a reality.
'As we start to slowly come out of lockdown and look forward to the future, we must remember to support our amazing frontline workers who sacrificed so much and worked so incredibly hard during such unprecedented times.
'Please do show your support by donating to the campaign directly or buy a voucher for yourself or a loved one to be used at one of our participating operators across the UK with a small added donation of £2.50. This will thank them with complimentary food and drink vouchers at the #UKGrandOutdoorCafe!
'Our musicians and team can’t wait to welcome you back inside when it is safe to do so!”
Once the Government allows live music to resume indoors, The Piano Works will be the first hospitality business in the UK to use the Gateway Personal Protection Tunnel (PPT), the UK’s only tested and verified personal protection gate that provides a whole body sanitising system alongside thermal imaging cameras and a PuriFog Air Machine.