Restaurants and bars institute governmental guidelines to combat the spread of COVID-19.

You are again welcome to dine-in at Hob House with a few additional measures in place to ensure your health and safety. Welcome! Karibu! ‘Ahlaan bik!

On the re-opening of restaurants, we move forward working with increased public safety rules and reduced capacity. We’ve had a good laugh this week as some restaurants – especially restaurants in the United States - are getting creative about how they meet these requirements.

Socially Distanced Dining

For Fish Tales, a pub and restaurant in Maryland, USA diners get a meal with a taste of bumper cars. The restaurant owner hired bumper tables for his customers—round tables with a hole in the middle for one person and a bouncy inner tube around the edge. The bumper tables have wheels on them, so diners can roll around the patio and say cheers and hello from a socially appropriate distance. Laughing!

My personal favourite is the three-Michelin-starred Inn at Little Washington in Virginia. The chef is filling empty tables in the restaurant with midcentury mannequins. The servers must interact with the mannequins as if they are guests—bringing them wine and asking about their day. It is a crowded restaurant, except half the people in it, are fake.

No such drastic measures have been taken at Hob House (sorry). To the benefit of our customers, a majority of our tables sit outside in our lovely garden. We were quickly able to increase the distance between dining tables so that they are spaced at least 6 feet apart; no more than 4- people for every 10 square meters; and, the distance from the back of one chair to the back of another chair is at least 1- meter. On the covered patios, we follow the same guidelines for the outdoor seating with a reduced seating capacity on the terraces.

We give thanks that there are no restrictions on the numbers of birds able to enjoy our garden at any one given time. Our bird baths are filled to the brim with rainwater. We guarantee our guests the familiar concert of the bird song playing in the background while you enjoy dining-in at Hob House.

Capacity Limits

Across the world, most restaurants are opening with updated capacity rules, but those vary from place to place. Many restaurants have chosen to increase their capacity by providing additional outdoor seating. For example, in the city of Cincinnati, the local government has closed several roadways near restaurants so that restaurants can expand their seating capacity outdoors.

No, Hob House is not going to ask our guests to sit out on the road! Our maximum capacity is 56 guests, appropriately distanced at 14- tables. For this reason, we encourage you to call ahead for reservations!

Paying

The Government of Kenya continues to suggest that we shirk cash payments in favour of digital payments due to the germs that could be transmitted while paying. For the majority of restaurants around the country, that means debit and credit card payments or mobile money.

At Hob House, we politely ask our customers to respect the health and safety of our staff and other diners by paying by card or mobile money. Tipping, you ask? When tipping your hardworking waiter, please pay a tip directly to your waiter using mobile money.

Sanitising

In a handful of countries, sushi robots are rumoured to be growing in popularity, cutting down on the time (and hands) necessary to place and receive an order. Other sanitation measures, aka UV lights to sanitise the restaurant and guests, are being put in place as well, to ensure the cleanliness of restaurants and the health of their customers. No such extraordinary measures have been implemented at Hob House!

What we are doing:

Masks are compulsory, for staff and diners.
The restaurant and premise are thoroughly cleaned and sanitised before opening our doors each day.
Hob House staff and diners have their temperate checked on arrival.
Staff and guests will wash and then sanitise their hands before entering the restaurant.
Our staff continuously hand wash and disinfectant the kitchen and all public spaces throughout the day.
As a final health and safety measure, alcohol-based hand sanitisers are on display at the entry and exit of the restaurant, for your use.

Staff Rules

Though there are lots of new SOPs, the rules for restaurant staff are not as clear. Ideally, restaurant owners should operate a large enough kitchen to allow staff members to keep a six-foot distance from one another, but that’s often not possible in cramped kitchen spaces at smaller restaurants like Hob House.

All staff have been examined and certified to be COVID-19 negative.
All staff wear face masks.
We have made the best efforts to stagger workstations in the food prep areas
We also continue to implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning and disinfection in the kitchen and food prep areas.
We have also trained and employed new cleaners to ensure the implementation of SOPs.

Lisa Amenya

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