Pierre Levicky says hospitality shutdown is 'disaster' for Edinburgh's restaurants

VETERAN restaurateur Pierre Levicky has branded the 16-day Covid hospitality shutdown a “disaster” for Edinburgh’s restaurant scene.
Pierre Levicky believes many restaurants will closePierre Levicky believes many restaurants will close
Pierre Levicky believes many restaurants will close

And he predicts closures and job losses as a result.

“It has to be called as it is,” he said. “It is a real, costly disaster.”

Mr Levicky runs Chez Jules in Hanover Street and managed to keep the business alive during the lockdown.

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“We borrowed money and went into debt to keep our business going because it is our livelihoods.

“We had 31 employees and we started with a take-away and then a month ago we decided it was working fine and we went back into opening as a one metre-plus zone. We’ve lost none of our employees and we got them all off furlough last month.

"We were really happy and over the last couple of weeks we felt we were doing really well and could see some kind of future. The profitability was not as good as it was but we had a steady ship.

"Then suddenly we are told on a Wednesday afternoon we have to close on the Friday at 6pm for 16 days.”

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He said the announcement meant immediate losses and a worrying outlook.

“You don’t buy your food on Thursday morning for the weekend – you spend £5,000 or £6,000 on food during the week to cope with your weekend but now you won’t be able to sell it.

"I tried to find a few restaurants to go with me and not close, I’m that upset. But other people are a lot quieter than I am, so we can’t do that.

"We have decided to try to minimise our waste by staying open as a take-away Saturday and Sunday and then closing for two weeks.”

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He questioned why restaurants were singled out. “You can go to Tesco or a museum or a gym, you can go to work in a factory – so is there no Covid there? They seem to think in a restaurant Covid is lurking everywhere, first of all after 10pm and now after 6pm and even more if you have a beer. The rules are becoming ridiculous.”

He fears the shutdown will be extended beyond the 16 days and the prospects for Christmas and New Year were grim.

"Some people will say ‘I’ve had enough’ and lock the door, some people will say ‘We’ll keep going for a while’ but without much confidence. I reckon a lot of Edinburgh restaurants will close down.”

He said work nights out at Christmas – usually a good source of business – were unlikely to take place.

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People are phoning me to ask if we are open on Christmas Day and usually we are, but do we want to open on Christmas Day because it’s very expensive and we can’t have as many tables as normal?

“New Year’s Eve in will be a dire affair, And then you have January and February which are the worst months of the year.

“So I think at the end of this month there will be a lot of people becoming unemployed.

“Already when you put up and ad for a waitress or waiter you get 300 responses whereas a month ago you only got eight.”

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