Tommy Banks on adapting to life after lockdown
Speaking in BigHospitality’s United We Stand podcast, Banks, who with his family runs Michelin-starred The Black Swan at Oldstead and the more informal Roots restaurant in York, says that his restaurant prices might have to rise in the future once lockdown is lifted.
“When this all finishes prices are going to have to go up if anything,” he says. “The cost of produce was already going through the roof.”
“I’m not going to put the prices up, but I am certainly not going to put them down. We much look at trying to be the best value possible.”
Banks says that his businesses will have to adapt to a post Coronavirus world, with his sharing plates restaurant Roots moving to a set menu format because of a likely unwillingness by customers to share food.
“I think there will be a period where people will just want to go and have their own plate of food in front of them,” he says.
However, the more involved format at The Black Swan at Oldstead, which is tasting menu only, will remain, he adds, because he believes customers will still want this style of dining out experience.
“We will still have a tasting menu that will be all about what we grow and forage as we still think that is what people want,” he says. “But we just need to be ever better than ever before.”
#UnitedWeStand has been created by William Reed hospitality titles BigHospitality, Restaurant magazine and Morning Advertiser and is supported by Britvic, CocaCola European Partners and Unilever Food Solutions.
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