Working with COVID…

First posted on 9th July 2020 and modified in April 2021 to reflect changes to the law…

Huge thanks to all of you who’ve continued to support us with orders for both local and national delivery, and also to those who’ve offered warm words of encouragement and support along the way. It really has made a big difference psychologically and the steady trickle of income has helped keep the wolves from the door until we reached this moment!

We’re looking forward to being able to throw the doors open here at BinTwo and we stand ready to welcome you for drinks in, some delicious food and stellar wines to take away. The shop will re-open for bottle sales on Wednesday 7th April and our covered outdoor seating terrace will re-open from 12th April.

We’ve worked hard to make BinTwo as COVID safe as we can and here I’ve set out some of the key changes you’ll see when visiting BinTwo.

Your own health and wellbeing.

Are you showing any symptoms that are associated with COVID 19? Are you running a bit of a temperature? Do you have a persistent cough? Do you ‘feel a bit peaky’? You know the list by now. If the answer to any of those questions is ‘yes’ then please… love you though we do… don’t come and visit us. Come back when you’re in the clear. 

To do otherwise would not only put other customers and our staff at risk, the subsequent test and trace process once you’re diagnosed could close us down. I can’t stress this enough – the coming weeks and months continue to be vital for the job security of us all who work at BinTwo. Sorry to labour the point but… y’know… extraordinary times!

Hygiene.

Not to suggest that we weren’t already hygienic of course, but we’ve increased the frequency of cleaning and hand washing and we’ll be disinfecting menus and seating areas between groups. We’ve added hand sanitiser stations at the entrance to the terrace and the entrance to the shop and we’ll be asking customers to use these before entering the premises.

Track and trace contact details.

We are required by law to ensure that all guests either check in to BinTwo using the NHS Track and Trace app or by taking your personal details and keeping them in a daily log. Ideally we’d ask you to download the NHS App and use that to check in to BinTwo. If you don’t have the app then all guests will be required to write their name and contact details on the back of your bill when we present it to you. The bill has the date and time of your visit and we’ll keep that on file for 21 days after which time it will be destroyed. This is the simplest, least obtrusive method we’ve come up with to meet our obligations and we’d be grateful if you’d bear with us.

Please don’t engage us in a debate about the rights and wrongs of the track and trace system. It’s now mandatory for us to ensure that guests check in with punishing fines if we can’t demonstrate that we’ve taken reasonable steps to ensure adherence to the law.

Sadly we’re obliged to deny service to customers who do not wish to check in or provide their details.

Reservations.

Boy, oh boy we’ve been round the houses on this question. It’s a far more complicated issue than it might appear for an establishment like ours. It’s not like a restaurant where you can say with reasonable confidence that a group typically takes two hours to turn around. We want to continue to accommodate everyone from the lone coast walker who stops in for a quick coffee, to the couple snatching a quick pre-dinner drink to the group who want to make a night of it with us. For now can I ask you to trust me that we’ve wrestled with it and that we think the best thing for us to to do is to not introduce a reservations system at this time. If experience proves we’ve got it wrong then we’ll adapt. One thing I can say for sure is that we’re bound to have to tweak all of our policies – we’re all learners here!

What we have introduced are time slots for the booths. In essence the booth is yours for two hours from your time of arrival. We’ll ask you about your plans to see if you won’t need the table for the full two hour slot. Once we’re full this system will then enable us to give arriving guests an indication about when a table will become available. We’ve introduced a pager system meaning that you can browse around the harbour until a table becomes free.

We are not able to allow customers to queue while waiting for a table. We do not own the land beyond our terrace and we’ve been asked by the landowner to avoid a build up of people at our entrance which might create issues for neighbouring businesses.

Seating.

We’ve constructed seating booths with discrete screening in order to separate groups effectively within their own ‘rooms’. We hope you’ll agree that we’ve achieved something approaching ‘cosy but airy’ (if that’s not a contradiction in terms). 

Outside we have booths for six groups. We have a retractable overhead sail above our outside booths so that passing showers don’t have everyone running for the nearest cover. We’ve also introduced side panels for those days when the wind whips straight up the Drang! We’ve worked hard to create spaces for single guests, couples and groups of people alike so that BinTwo remains a place for everyone. 

We’ll trust you to follow government guidelines in respect of the make-up of your group. Currently that means groups of six made up of any number of households or a larger group made up of two households. The law requires that you wear a face mask other than when you are seated at your table.

We ask that you maintain social distancing when you are outside of your booth and that you do not attempt to mingle with other tables.

Inside we’ve managed to retain a screened off and socially distanced seating for six to eight people. If plans for the easing of lockdown remain as announced then we expect indoor seating to be available from 17th May.

Table Service only.

We’ll be operating table service only and a member of the team will be dedicated to looking after the outside tables. We’ve dubbed this role as the “Booth Operator” and the staff will do a passable cover of Sade on request (look it up kids). We’re asking guests and their children to remain seated in their booth, to not mingle with other groups and to not go into the shop to order drinks at the bar.

Payment will be taken at tables and contactless and card payments are the preferred method of payment please.

Face Masks.

Face coverings must be worn other than when you’re sat at your table please.

Smoking.

Sorry folks. Our terrace is now a non-smoking area.

Toilets.

We’re keeping toilets open for customer use. We ask that guests do not queue in the shop or on the steps to wait for the loo. Please remain seated in your booth until the toilet becomes available.

Dogs.

Still very welcome at BinTwo. Still love the furry little beasts. Despite rumours you might hear to the contrary I love dogs… LOVE ’em. But with less room on the terrace than we’ve ever had before we ask that dogs are kept on their leads at all times and that they remain on the floor. For hygiene reasons we no longer have our human blankets or dog blankets and so we’re asking customers to adhere to our ‘no dogs on the seats’ policy. No matter how small/cute/well-groomed they are… please keep them off the seats… PLEEEEAAASE. 

Thank you.

Pushchairs.

Due to space constraints we’re not able to have prams on the terrace any longer. The space in front of the Angling Centre window does not belong to us and must be kept clear and we simply don’t have any ‘parking area’ to offer. So while babies of all ages are still very much welcome at BinTwo it’s time to dig out your favourite carrying sling and strap that infant to your chest while you ease the pain of parenthood with a glass of our fabulous Champagne (it really does work… I’m a veteran of two tours or Parent’nam’ and I firmly believe the NHS should offer Champagne to new parents on prescription).

Food.

We’ve upped our game on the food front and have re-introduced our much-loved Padstow crab rolls alongside our charcuterie, manchego, olives, nuts and other tapas-like nibbles.

But recognising that it might be more difficult for you to secure table reservations in restaurants with reduced capacity, we’ve struck up a collaboration with our neighbours at The Mussel Box (formerly The Basement). Dave and Emma-Kate have a fantastic take-away offering so if you’d rather have a portion of mussels and chips than our own food offering we’re allowing BinTwo customers to bring in their takeaway from the Mussel Box in exchange for £5 ‘Forkage’ per person which we will add to your bill.

We think that’s a fair charge – much like a food version of the well established corkage charge applied by restaurants when you ask to take your own bottle of wine. If the idea of ‘forkage’ has left you with a furrowed brow then consider this: It means you get you to enjoy your mussels in our comfortable seating with a nice glass of wine in your hand rather than crouched on a bench by the harbour trying to eat your mussels before the seagulls get to them. It means that we offset the loss of guests choosing to eat someone else’s food on our premises.

By happy coincidence/planning a takeaway portion of mussels and chips plus our forkage charge comes to the same amount as if you’d eaten in at the Mussel Box so your ‘eat in’ experience with us leaves you no worse off then if you’d ‘eaten in’ at the Mussel Box. Everyone wins!

Now what wine are you going to have with those mussels…

Browsing in the shop.

You’ll see that we’ve removed our ‘breakfast bar’ in the middle of the shop which creates enough room for two people to browse the shelves at any one time while leaving enough space for staff to be able to do their thing and for other customers to access the toilets.

We know that browsing the shelves is a real pleasure and we can’t wait to share our new wines with you! But with restrictions on the number of staff we can have working, our capacity on the terrace and our capacity in the shop, you really may find it more convenient – and a better shopping experience – to order on line through our online shop. 

For deliveries in Padstow and the immediate area we’ll be delivering on Wednesdays and Fridays (free for orders over £50) and if you’d like something other than the selection of wines in our online shop then drop us an email and we’ll happily work to your brief wine@bintwo.com

If you’re heading down on holiday we can deliver to your rented accommodation so why not have a little browse of our online shop and rest easy in the knowledge that your vital beverage requirements have been met with the minimum of faff and hassle.

If you’re a Wine Club member then in the bottom left corner of your membership card there’s the voucher code that you can use at check out in order to redeem your 10% discount.

Contacting us.

With reduced staffing in the shop in order to maintain social distancing we’re in for a busy old summer. In all likelihood we’ll be too busy to pick up the phone. So please use email for any enquiries wine@bintwo.com We can monitor that from the till system and the member of staff behind the counter will check periodically for messages. We will get back to you… I promise!

That’s it folks. There are some weird and unfamiliar processes and things will look a bit different to your last trip but we’re working hard to retain the ‘essence of BinTwo’. I can guarantee that we won’t get it right from the start and thank you in advance for your patience. I know already that you’ll be kind to the staff when you see them/us stressy and rushed because you’re a good bunch.

We always appreciate your feedback. Let us know on the day if there’s a problem we can fix there and then. If it’s something more about the systems and processes then the guys are working within the parameters they’ve been given so in that instance an email to wine@bintwo.com might be better.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the terrace over the summer. 

Cheers!

Mike