Sheffield restaurant says hospitality sector 'may not survive' as customer numbers decline due to Omicron fears

Otto’s restaurant in Sharrow Vale shared a picture of their almost empty restaurant to Twitter on the evening Mad Friday (December 17) as customers stayed away from hospitality venues over Covid fears.

There was one table of three people in the restaurant at the time that the photo was taken, and the owners fear that if further government support for the hospitality industry does not come, they may only be viable for a matter of months.

Theresa Damahi, joint owner of Otto’s, said: “Historically Mad Friday is one of busiest days of the year in Sheffield. We are working at less than 30 percent capacity, Mad Friday did not put any money in the bank for us. We probably broke even.

"We have been extremely careful with grants but we can’t operate like this forever. We have had some loyal customers coming to get takeaways after we put the tweet out because they want the business to survive. I have already been thinking about how long we will be viable. We started in a recession in 2008, we are used to difficult trading conditions. For us and the hospitality industry generally, it may be a matter of months at best and weeks at the worst that restaurants are viable.”

The downturn in footfall at venues across the city has led to some businesses closing until at least after Christmas, with Rutland Arms closing its doors on December 16.

Theresa added: "I completely understand people’s fears, for many people it is not a comfortable experience to go in a restaurant at the moment. A constructive way to support businesses is to use them in whatever way you can, whether that is getting a takeaway meal or a coffee to go.

"We went into lockdown first time and the government support was fantastic. I don’t have that certainty now, we are in limbo. I would like to see support measures back in place.

“If as many hospitality venues go to the wall as I fear that will be a lot of people unemployed.”