Sheffield pub teams up with pizzeria to help it stay open during Tier 3 lockdown

John Harrison, owner of The Beer House, said he will serve food in partnership with the Porter Pizza Company from Friday, October 30, to ensure he can continue to welcome customers despite tougher rules now being in place.

Tier 3 restrictions, which came into force across South Yorkshire on Saturday, mean that pubs can only stay open if they serve ‘substantial meals’.

John, who employs about five members of staff, said he had been anticipating harsher lockdown rules for the last few weeks and had already started making plans to act as a restaurant to comply with new measures.

He does, however, think the new restrictions are unfair to ‘wet led’ pubs like his which ordinarily focus on selling drink rather than food.

John said: “We’ve just had to adapt a lot in the last two or three months. One of the main things about this is the unfairness of it all, the idea that wet led pubs are a more dangerous environment than a pub which sells food or a restaurant is not backed by any evidence.

"The idea that we, as an industry, are being targeted is harsh. It’s even harsher to then separate wet led pubs and food led pubs.”

Under the new partnership, customers visiting The Beer House will have to book a table which they can then keep for just short of two hours.

“We want to trade because that’s what we love to do,” John added. “The community and mental health aspect of people meeting in our pub and pubs across Sheffield is huge, it’s a massive part of the community and for some its a massive part of their life.

"Everyone is very much excited about the idea and willing to support us. They’ve already been booking tables.”

The Beer House will be intially be open for food Friday through until Sunday.

Viv Durrant, owner of Porter Pizza, said: “We’re keen to help out. We’re going to go with a very small mobile pizza oven and serve them from The Beer House which we hope will be interesting and enticing to people.”

For more information visit The Beer House on Facebook or Twitter.

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