Nightclub bosses ready to take government to court over covid vaccine passports: Hospitality industry leaders have warned the government it could face legal action over plans for compulsory vaccine passports for nightclubs and other “large crowded settings” in England. The new rules, announced by Boris Johnson on Monday, are due to come into effect from September when all over-18s have been offered two covid vaccines. From this point, the prime minister said, “proof of a negative test” will “no longer be enough” to secure entry. A group of industry tycoons has written to health secretary Sajid Javid, warning him that introducing vaccine passports without “a proper and adequate consultation process” is “highly likely to be unlawful”. They argue the plans could have “a discriminatory effect on grounds of race”, and risk encouraging illegal raves that lack safety arrangements. The letter was written by Hugh Osmond, founder of Punch Taverns and director of Various Eateries, and signed by Michael Kill, Peter Marks and Stephen Thomas, who head the Night Time Industries Association, Rekom UK and The Jam House, respectively. The letter argues that the government must initiate “a proper and adequate consultation process” with those “involved in the running of the night-time economy”. It warns that otherwise “any decision to introduce new rules would be highly likely to be unlawful”. It says: “Mandatory vaccine certification as a condition of entry to any venue will impact disproportionately on younger people, who are less likely to be vaccinated than those in older age groups. That impact is further exacerbated when the only venues currently suggested to be affected are nightclubs, whose customers are already likely to be primarily younger adults. It is also well known that levels of vaccination are lower in some ethnic groups than others, and there is therefore likely to be a discriminatory effect on grounds of race as well.” Osmond accused the government of “arbitrary” decision making and called for decisions to be based on “evidence not prejudice”. He said: “Mandatory covid status certification would strike at the heart of our liberal democracy, create a two-tier society, discriminate against society’s already most marginalised groups and disproportionately affect young people who enjoy and work in this industry – who have already suffered intolerable burdens on behalf of society over the last eighteen months.” (Sunday Telegraph)

English nightclubs’ grand reopening tainted by covid checks plan: At midnight last Sunday, English nightclub owners were welcoming the first partygoers through their doors in almost 16 months. Just 17 hours later they were issuing statements of outrage as the government announced that clubs would have to check customers’ covid status come the end of summer. Nightclubs and other indoor venues “where large crowds gather” will only be allowed to serve guests who have been jabbed twice or can prove a negative covid test from the end of September, the government said. “I think it’s hard for someone who hasn’t been in a business to understand the emotional excitement of being able to do your profession after not being able to trade [for that long],” said Luke Johnson, the hospitality entrepreneur and chair of Brighton Pier Group, which operates nine bars and clubs, three of which it has disposed of during the pandemic. BPG managed to run two clubs as restaurants but, according to its latest financial report, these only achieved £700,000 in sales in the six months to the end of December, 11% of the total during the same period in 2019. Aaron Mellor, managing director of Tokyo Industries, which runs 45 bars and clubs in the UK, said the cash burn had been “absolutely horrific”. The group fell from £5m in earnings before interest, tax, amortisation and depreciation in 2019 to a loss of £4m last year. The most painful moment was when the government delayed the reopening of clubs from 21 June to 19 July. “In that period we had 220 nights sold out that would have brought in £1.2m Ebitda,” Mellor said. Peter Marks, chief executive of Rekom UK, the UK’s largest nightclub operator, said that across its 47 clubs it took £650,000 on Monday – about six times as much as a normal Monday in summer – and that 60 to 70% of its 30,000 customers were first-time clubbers. If covid “passports” were introduced in the autumn, pitting nightclubs against pubs, business would “drop off a cliff”, Marks warned. The hit from covid passport checks might make Rekom’s new backers “less supportive” of the UK business, Marks added. Mellor said he was hoping for strong trade during the summer despite it traditionally being a quiet period for clubs. “With people not travelling I’m hoping it will be buoyant. [This week is] significantly up so far on 2019 but the true test will be the weekend,” he said.(The FT)

Pubs giant slams Test and Trace staff chaos: JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin has declared that Britain is being “laid waste” by the NHS Test and Trace app, which is causing pubs and restaurants to shut temporarily due to severe staff shortages. Martin, said 5,000 of his 40,000 workers were “pinged” by the app last week alone, forcing them to stay at home for ten days to self-isolate. “The pingdemic is affecting every aspect of the hospitality business – from production, to maintenance, to deliveries, to the directly employed and the customers,” he said. “The country is being laid waste by yet another failed IT system to which naive politicians are in thrall.” Fears are mounting that the “pingdemic” will derail Britain’s recovery from the wipeout caused by covid. Businesses are also worried about red tape as they try to establish whether their workforces qualify for exemptions from isolation rules published by the government to try to keep the economy open. The list includes supermarket depot workers and suppliers in 2,000 distribution centres who will be allowed to take daily tests at work instead of self-isolating, before the requirement is dropped for the double-vaccinated on 16 August. Up to 10,000 staff are expected to qualify for the scheme, although police, fire, Border Force, transport and freight staff have also been added. (Sunday Times)

Vying to escape the pingdemic: Businesses are desperately trying to find ways around the “pingdemic” as hundreds of thousands of staff are pinged by the NHS Test and Trace app, requiring them to self-isolate for ten days. The latest figures show more than 600,000 people were flagged by the app in a week, leaving businesses struggling to operate with skeleton teams. Reports that supermarkets, restaurants and factories were creaking under the pressure came thick and fast. Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said he had been forced to close two stores after 4% of his workforce – 1,000 people – were pinged and sent home. Pret A Manger had to close 17 shops and Marks & Spencer said it might need to cut opening hours. In Bristol, Yishay Malkov had to push back the opening of the newest Coppa Club restaurant after two staff members tested positive – causing 26 workers who had attended a recent training day to self-isolate. When the restaurant finally opened last Monday, staff were under strict instructions to operate in “bubbles”, working shifts with the same people each week. “We try to keep them in hubs,” said Malkov, chief executive of the chain’s parent, Various Eateries. “At any given time, we know who is where and doing what shift, and who they are working with.” Having to self-isolate can often leave workers out of pocket – especially if restaurants or pubs temporarily close due to lack of staff. While statutory sick pay is available, this is just £96.35 a week. It is up to employers to furlough staff or top up their pay. “For some, through no fault of their own, the business can’t afford to pay anything,” said Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality. Alasdair Murdoch, who runs Burger King in the UK, said he had adapted restaurant service. “Within reason, people are working in bubbles,” he explained. “You try to get the same people to work together, so that if you lose a couple of people, you don’t lose the whole restaurant.” Where staffing levels were low, Burger King shops had moved to takeaway only. “We’ve probably got about ten restaurants doing that. The numbers are going up and down, but largely going up.” (Sunday Times)

Sadiq Khan urges PM to change isolation rules earlier: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and business leaders have urged Boris Johnson to end self-isolation for contacts of covid cases if they are fully vaccinated. The prime minister is under growing pressure to replace the ten-day quarantine with daily testing for those alerted by the NHS covid-19 app or Test and Trace. It comes amid concerns of staffing shortages across sectors – including hospitality and the food supply chain. The government plans to end isolation for those double-jabbed by 16 August. But business leaders and cross-party politicians want the prime minister to bring forward the date – saying businesses are being put at risk by the “pingdemic”. In a letter to Mr Johnson, Mr Khan joined UKHospitality, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the capital’s branch of the Federation of Small Businesses to demand change. Nearly 608,000 contact tracing alerts were sent in England in the week between 8 and 15 July – a record high. Hospitality businesses, such as pubs and restaurants, are struggling with staff shortages, causing some to close temporarily, the letter says. “The summer months are crucial for many businesses’ recovery and their ability to recover must not be put in jeopardy,” it reads. “We are therefore calling on you to ensure that the necessary testing is in place to enable people who have been double vaccinated for longer than two weeks and pinged by the NHS covid app, to immediately return to work, following a negative PCR test, rather than having to self-isolate.” This would help employers and employees to retain faith in the NHS covid-19 app in England and Wales, the signatories say. (BBC News)

Reinvented menu for Le Caprice: When the closure of Le Caprice was announced a year ago, there was consternation among its A-list clientele. During almost 40 years as a fixture in London’s West End, it had attracted the likes of Sir Mick Jagger, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Elizabeth Taylor. Yet the “grand old lady” has found a new calling. The site just behind The Ritz hotel has reopened as a training academy in response to the worsening staff shortage that is afflicting the hospitality industry. Richard Caring, the entrepreneur behind Caprice Holdings, the Ivy Collection and Bill’s, said that the lease on the site had 18 months to run, so he had decided to use it to offer six-week training courses aimed at 18 to 24-year-olds who had not previously worked in hospitality. The aim was to train bartenders, chefs, waiters and kitchen porters. “We’re using our old Caprice restaurant site, which provides a feeling of working in an actual restaurant,” he said. Caring, who is seeking a “more glamorous” site for Le Caprice, said that the move was a response to the staff shortage created mainly by the impact of Brexit and the pandemic on the supply of European workers. “We’re suffering like everyone else,” he said. “We’re very short of people, which means current staff are being asked to work longer hours and extra shifts.” He said that the shortage was putting pressure on wages and the average cost of attracting new staff was now “way above” the minimum wage. Some operators had resorted to offering £1,000-plus signing-on bonuses, but Caring said: “I’m not keen on it. We’ve done it only on a very limited basis.” Asked whether his company paid bonuses, he said: “It might be £1,000, but I’m not encouraging it. What I want is to get good people and give them a career. It’s not just a question of throwing £1,000 or £2,000 at somebody.” Caring, who has more than 100 restaurants, said his aim was to move the academy to a bigger site in London and to develop two more in Manchester and the south of England. He said he was considering an offer of a new 20-year lease on the old Caprice site with a view to creating “something very original”. (The Times)

Rent row lights up Cineworld: Cineworld has been plunged into a fresh court battle over unpaid rents, as the world’s second-biggest cinema chain scrambles to recover from months of closures. The FTSE 250 company is facing a £1 million legal claim from Marina Developments Ltd, the owner of its multiplex in Southampton. Owned by Baron Iliffe and his family’s Yattendon Group, which runs marinas along with local newspapers. Marina Developments claims that Cineworld has failed to pay rent and other charges since March last year. It is the latest clash between landlord and tenant after a government-backed moratorium was introduced to prevent evictions. Last year, it was reported that Cineworld was considering a controversial insolvency process known as a company voluntary arrangement to slash rents, but it did not materialise. Cineworld reopened its cinemas in the UK after the first lockdown, but closed them again in October last year after big film studios delayed the release of blockbusters such as Wonder Woman 1984 and the latest James Bond film. Cineworld, led by Mooky Greidinger, has already been ordered to pay rent to landlord AEW UK Reit after demanding holidays since the start of the pandemic. In March, it fell to an annual loss of $3 billion (£2.2 billion) and said there was “material uncertainty” about its ability to continue as a going concern. It came two months after shareholders approved a bonus scheme that could pay Greidinger up to £65 million in shares. (Sunday Times)

Double jabs set to be needed to watch Premier League matches: Premier League football fans who have not been fully vaccinated could be barred from attending matches from October under plans expected to be signed off by ministers, The Telegraph can disclose. The mandatory requirement is expected to extend to the autumn rugby internationals, major concerts, and spectator events of 20,000 or more as part of Boris Johnson’s efforts to turn covid-19 into a “manageable menace”. A social media campaign aimed at boosting uptake among 18-30 year-olds will also be ramped up, linking vaccination to the ability to go on holiday, as three million of them are yet to receive a single dose. The NHS booster jab rollout will deliver 35 million doses to over-50s and the most vulnerable over 13 weeks from 6 September to save the country from another lockdown this winter. Government sources told The Telegraph officials have entered talks with the Premier League over potentially moving to mandatory double vaccination status for supporters attending matches, as part of the drive to keep the country moving in the run up to Christmas. (Sunday Telegraph)

Marina O’Loughlin reviews the Star, South Downs: What to do when the restaurant you’ve travelled quite far to review probably shouldn’t be open to paying guests yet? Welcome to the Star in Alfriston, the latest in the small constellation of glamorous boutique hotels owned by the doyenne of the genre, Olga Polizzi, this one with her daughter Alex, of TV fame. A joy in store, right? Wrong. This 15th-century former coaching inn, with its impossibly picturesque setting, sits amid the beautiful South Downs. And despite kicking off with a perfect retro cosmopolitan – cocktail of the summer, apparently – things went rapidly downhill. I could, were I a different critic, go to town on the place. Our small rooms in the new wing overlooking the car park, John Lewis meets Travelodge, £270 a night. The choice at dinner: “I don’t think I’ve ever read a less appealing menu.” The fact that we returned after a subsequent dinner elsewhere – not late – to a darkened hotel manned by a single, sheepish night porter and, by way of nightcap, had to accept the offer of wine from the car boot of equally deprived fellow guests. But the beds and linen were heaven, like sleeping in our own personal clouds. Breakfasts were good, especially a rubbly Calcot Farm black pudding on caramelised onion hash with rich, liquid-yolked duck egg. And staff struggled manfully to paper over the many cracks. I was with a pal known to management and Olga Polizzi recounted how staffing, thanks to Brexit and the pandemic, was a real problem, how they were struggling to make it perfect in the face of impossible odds. At one point, returning to my room, I found Polizzi herself helping with turndown. I hadn’t realised when we booked months ago that they’d have just opened; I’ve never reviewed soft launches – which this really should have been – so I prepared to bite it and keep shtoom. Anyway, it left me with a dilemma. How do I review a restaurant where the menu inspired so little I resorted to steak and chips? Forty-two quid, and the chips were catering-pack frozen. Where four small, pedestrian ravioli cost £14. Where a pork chop with lentils (dull) cost £38. But in the knowledge that a deal of – I want to say tweaking but I’m guessing serious overhaul – was going on, a full savaging would be unfair. I cast about wildly for nearby plan Bs. (Sunday Times Magazine)

Giles Coren reviews Camden Beer Hall: Let me implore you to visit the newly revamped and expanded Camden Beer Hall, home of the Camden Brewery, founded by my dear old friend Jasper Cuppaidge (lovely man, delightful wife), just down the road from his own (and, as it happens, my) gorgeous house in fashionable Kentish Town. He’s got my dear, dear pal Theo Randall from the InterContinental in there doing the cooking now – the idea being to create a German beer hall with Italian food (quite bonkers, of course). I was served (at the best table in the house, I might add) some quite historic giant pretzels [are pretzels Italian? Please check] as well as historic fritto misto (so crispy!), wonderful ravioli filled with some sort of Italian creamy stuff (cheese?), “loaded” focaccia as thick as my arm (Theo says it’s a more “interesting” version of pizza), and a brilliant steak cut into slices just like Luigi does at the Splendido. Although Mr Randall didn’t fork it into my mouth himself, like Luigi does, so I’ve taken him off my Christmas card list. We drank little ice-cold glasses of wonderfully fresh Camden Hells lager with all these dishes and it was all quite, quite historic. But I’ll tell you what wasn’t historic: supper at Viet Grill in Shoreditch. Actually, it was. Historically BAD! Having pivoted to a delivery hub during lockdown, it has proved unable to pivot back into anything vaguely resembling a restaurant. One waiter serving a whole (empty!) room? Ridiculous! I was completely ignored, as were my famous friends, Jemima and Henry Dimbleby (son of David – wonderful man, lovely house, huge swimming pool). It went on so long that I ended up ordering my dishes on Deliveroo because I thought it would be quicker. [Can this possibly be true? – legal dept.] They made us a round of disgusting margaritas and only afterwards admitted they had no limes! What did they make them with, then? Shampoo? Hydroxychloroquine? Appalling. Ought to be closed down. (Henry and Jemima told me the food was historic – I know nothing about food! – but that’s hardly the point.) (The Times Magazine)

Jay Rayner reviews Sonny Stores, Bristol: There is no glittering river running down the middle of Raleigh Road, in Bristol’s Southville district. There are no Arctic snowfields of white linen dressing the tables. The dining room is not polluted by braying parties of media plutocrats of a sort that might make even the most ardent pacifist think ugly, violent thoughts. As a result of these things, the prices will not quite make you wince, like someone has poked a vinegar-dipped finger into a recently incurred wound. Or to put it another way, no one would look at the humble, whitewashed space housing Sonny Stores, on a corner in residential Bristol, and mistake it for the famed River Café. Until the food starts arriving. And then: oh my. Gosh. And thank you. The comparison is not overly contrived. The chef, Pegs Quinn, spent five years cooking at the River Café in Hammersmith. He learned how to make the silkiest of pastas. He learned the supple, subtle ways of the wood-fired oven. Bristolians who care about their dinner, and the city’s thrilling independent restaurant sector suggests they are many, should give thanks for what he learned there. All of it, and more besides, is now here. I leave with a surge of jealously. Behind all the surrounding front doors are people who can pop over the road for a plate or two here any time they like, funds allowing. Sure, we all need convenience shops, but why not convenience restaurants? Why not this convenience restaurant? I shouldn’t be surprised it’s here, of course. This is Bristol where they have nailed the business of the small but perfectly formed independent. No grandiose, surging rivers. No acres of linen. No plutocrats. Just great food, done really well. (The Guardian)

Tom Parker Bowles reviews The Bridge Arms, Bridge, Canterbury: There’s much to love about The Bridge Arms, a place that mixes old-fashioned boozer with resolutely modern restaurant. So while the pub is all ancient beams, parquet floors and framed photos of days long past, the dining room – high-ceilinged and flooded with light – is daubed in discreet Dijon yellow. Staff are young, bright and brimming with delight, while the menu is every bit as thrilling as a new Jack Reacher. All this doesn’t come as a complete surprise. It’s the second opening from Daniel and Natasha Smith, the team behind The Fordwich Arms a few miles down the road. While my friend Zeren gets stuck into a wine list filled with decently priced lovelies, I dive deep into the menu that’s the very essence of midsummer England. There are grilled potato flatbreads with blobs of fresh ricotta, clean and lactic, plus soft, gentle confit garlic with a scattering of mint and flowers. Lobster, immaculately cooked, comes with a subtly curried shellfish sauce, surrounded by curls of courgettes and carefully dressed Isle of Wight tomatoes. Then, more tomatoes, this time hugging a cool, creamy ball of burrata, mixed with tart peach, shaved and cubed, and a few fronds of dill. There’s a wonderful acidity to the dish, the sort of understated precision that wears its art lightly. Just like crab tart, where the flakiest of pastry struggles to contain a brown-meat hollandaise with exactly the right amount of grunt. A spoonful of caviar adds depth, cubes of apple and cucumber lithe bite. A scallop is almost Japanese in its purity; a little lemon and garlic, and lots of butter, yet never rich or heavy. As with everything, there’s an innate culinary intelligence, and elegant technique too. And that’s just the starters. We share a Josper-cooked, monolithic monkfish tail, a piece of fish so pearlescent, luscious and succulently beautiful that the table turns temporarily silent. Dipped into Bearnaise sauce, it’s every bit as mightily meaty as the rack of Blackface lamb, and a lozenge of slow-cooked breast, that we move on to next. Both bleat with ovine vigour. Oh, then a roast leg of suckling pig, with gleaming crisp skin and tenderly seductive flesh, that we order, well, just because it’s there, and we adore this place, and it’s past three on a hot summer’s afternoon. And quite frankly, it would be rather rude not to. (Mail on Sunday)