We are currently plodding our way through the third lockdown, and there seems to be little to look forward to at the minute! The highlight of my week is our weekend takeaway! Whilst my wife and I would love to be able to visit a restaurant to sit and enjoy a meal out, a takeaway is the next best thing at the minute.
Many establishments are trying to change and adapt to just keep some income coming in during this extended closure for hospitality and it has resulted in a new way of working for many caterers. We have been running our takeaway service since the lockdown in November once a weekend on Fridays and more recently a Saturday night. Whilst this doesn’t much for is in terms of income as a company we want to make sure we keep food going out the door, keep us in your minds and also offer a bit of weekend cheer for our valued customers. Being such a rural location I don’t think a takeaway menu all week would be beneficial. The nature of takeaway was completely alien to us having never done anything like this before. Going from a day to day service with a consistent stock level is far different to a one day a week service. We have tinkered our menus to try and suit all customers, even if it is reduced from our usual menu, we just can’t feasibly serve that size of menu for takeout! It has also given us a little room for creativity and to try a few new things with one eye on our re-opening. Our Mexican themed takeaway menu was a huge hit, we have been busy making some new custom burgers a little different to our usual dishes. Inspired by street food we have trialed some quirky dishes with our Chicken Gyros on sale this week and our Piri Piri Chicken Melts and Chilli Burritos flying out the door last month. But don’t panic, we still offer plenty of dishes that we are renowned for with traditional winter warmers proving popular Dublin Beef, Bourgignone, Farmhouse Pork, Steak and Ale Pie all making appearances on the takeaway menu.
So the highlight of your week is also the highlight of ours as it is the one day we get to do what we love, serving our valued customers, cooking homemade food and seeing meals leave the kitchen, we would just prefer them on plates and not in disposable containers!
Our new online ordering system can be reached by clicking our weblink advertised on email and facebook posts, https://menus.preoday.com/Appleby-Inn#/main/venue/menu which lets customers pre-order 24/7 and pick their time slot for collection. We have limited orders per time slot to make sure social distancing is in place for collection and with our Adelaide Suite open as the point of collection there is plenty of room to spread out should there be another customer collecting at the same time. If you do not wish to come into the building to collect just let us know and we can get a member fo staff to bring the takeaway to the car!
We are all still ticking down the days until we can open the doors again and welcome everyone back in when it is safe to do so, in the meantime its takeaway menu only so feel free to let us know what you would like to order for your weekend treat!
Stay safe and see you all soon.
Michael x
