Jeremy King: Socially distanced restaurants will be 'impossible and implausible'

Restaurateur Jeremy King has said that social distancing in a restaurant will be "impossible and implausible", and that conviviality and community are essential.

The Corbin & King co-founder, behind restaurants including the Wolseley in Mayfair and Colbert in Sloane Square, said: "Chris [Corbin, co-founder] and I always had as our guiding light the premise that we opened restaurants we would like to go to.

"I am afraid I certainly have no interest in going to a place where I am sitting in isolation, surrounded by Perspex screens and served by someone in a mask and gloves – where's the fun in that?

"Restaurants are generally social hubs which depend on the conviviality of community and we need to understand this."

King, who with Corbin was named Restaurateur of the Year – Independent at the 1993 Cateys, said his restaurants would open again to welcome guests, although he has "no idea when".

He added that a recent YouGov poll, which said that 57% of people would be apprehensive about visiting a restaurant was in fact a cause for optimism, stating that the 43% who would be happy is only likely to increase in the coming months.

The government is to release details of how the lockdown will be lifted on Sunday, after Ireland laid out a timetable that could see restaurants and pubs allowed to open their doors by the end of the summer months.

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