Eat Out To Help Out – diners enjoy more than 100 million meals: Britons ate more than 100 million meals last month as part of the Eat Out To Help Out discount scheme. The final day of the scheme – Monday, August 31 – saw a 216% jump in bookings compared with the equivalent day in 2019, according to initial data from OpenTable. By the end of Monday, 130,000 claims were made by 84,700 restaurants signed up to the programme, with claims costing about £522m. The figure will rise because businesses have until the end of September to make a claim. Chancellor Rishi Sunak hailed the programme as a “success” and said: “From the get-go our mission has been to protect jobs, and to do this we needed to be creative, brave and try things no government has done before. I want to thank everyone, from restaurant owners to waiters, chefs and diners, for embracing it and helping drive our economic recovery. The scheme is just one part of our plan for jobs and we will continue to protect, support and create jobs to ensure we come back stronger as a nation.” Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, added: “The Eat Out To Help Out scheme has been a great success for hospitality. Our members have reported very strong bookings throughout August at a time when the sector really needed a boost. It has helped provide a lift in consumer confidence, which is going to be key for hospitality businesses as they look to reopen and help rebuild the economy.”

Mission Mars lines up six Albert’s Schloss openings, first in Liverpool: Mission Mars, the north west bar and restaurant operator led by Roy Ellis, is lining up six Albert’s Schloss openings, with the first planned for Liverpool. Ellis told Propel the company is looking at four sites in London, of which two will hopefully be developed, plus sites in Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle. The original Albert’s Schloss, a Bavarian beer hall concept, opened in Manchester in 2015. Mission Mars is to invest £250,000 opening its second “indoor beer garden” Zumhof Biergarten in the 10,000 square foot former Liv Organic site in Liverpool’s Bold Street, which is home to a group of leisure operators. However, a further £1.75m will be invested eventually to turn the site into an Albert’s Schloss. The company wants to open in early October after a four-week fit-out. The site will have 385 seats but, post-covid, will accommodate about 600. The first Zumhof Biergarten is situated in a 12,000 square foot, 1920s former factory building in Digbeth, Birmingham. It features speciality beer such as unpasteurised Pilsner and a food hut serving bratwursts and burgers. The site in Liverpool will have four kitchens, with Mission Mars operating one and a coffee bar with local entrepreneurs operating the remainder. It will feature a 13-metre central bar and open from 10am to midnight. The Zumhof Biergarten seeks to create the vibe of a festival. Ellis said: “We hope it, ultimately, becomes a Schloss – we are incubating the site for now with a full-scale investment when restrictions ease.” Ellis added he was “pleased overall” with trading since the sector reopened. He said: “It has given us the confidence we are going to be around for a long time and can create a pipeline of sites for Albert’s Schloss.”