Sheffield restaurant to remain closed and operate as takeaway as lockdown eases

The owners of NO NAME have said that the decision comes as the restaurant is not big enough to viably reopen for seated dining while the government guidance on social distancing remains in place.

The government rules state that from July 4 restaurants and pubs can reopen and that a ‘one metre plus’ social distancing rule must be followed.

This means that people not from the same household can come as close as one metre to each other, as long as another ‘mitigating factor’, such as a screen, is also in place.

Instead of reopening, NO NAME will carry on serving takeaway food like it has been doing for the duration of the lockdown.

The owners will review this decision every two weeks and will update customers on when it will reopen fully.

In a statement posted on social media, chef and owner Thomas Samworth wrote: “This decision hasn’t been taken lightly but due to rules/regulations (which are totally understandable) and the size of the restaurant we are very restricted as a to how many people we could seat each night to maintain No Name as a business.

“Therefore the process of serving takeaways will continue to operate as this is our only option at the moment until we can resume a normal service.“We cannot thank you enough for your continuous support and well wishes over this hard period of time for everyone.”

Anybody who has a booking with NO NAME will have the option to be told when the takeaway pre-orders are open in advance on the night they had booked, to ensure that they have priority and get a NO NAME meal.

Mr Samworth added that no new bookings would be taken until further notice.

“We hope won’t cause upset but after much discussion this is what we have decided moving forward for this moment in time,” he added.