COVID Customer Risk Assessment for Thyme after time Café
Steve and Margot Dimmer, proprietors/business partners have prepared a risk assessment for our café and with careful consideration have prepared what we feel will work best for our business based on the way we work and the layout of our café. Here are the changes we have implemented in our café for your safety-
Hand Sanitiser for customers
We have a free-standing hand sanitiser in the doorway of the our café, it automatically dispenses so there is no requirement to touch it at all, to protect you from multiple contact by our customers.
We ask that you use this on entry every time to our café please, even if you go to your car or to the toilet, please use it again.
Track and Trace Records
In order to dine in our café, you will need to book in advance- even if you ring as you are leaving. We are obliged to keep records for 21 days of who visits our café after which the information is destroyed. The information we will require is simply your name, telephone number and time of arrival.
We can accept spontaneous visits providing you sit outside in our outdoor seating area. We may still ask you though for your details for our records.
You do have the right to refuse to give us this information, however if we feel it appropriate upon your refusal we also reserve the right to turn you away if we feel this is best at that time for the safety of our staff and customers. We like to think that we can work together with you our customers and you and our staff’s safety is paramount to us.
Indoor Dining
Booking is advisable for tables in the inside of our café.
We will be staggering our bookings so that all customers do not arrive at the same time.
Each booked table will be given a one and a half hour time allowance. We appreciate that this is not ideal and in the past, we have loved our ability to allow you to spend a leisurely amount of time enjoying your stay with us. However, with so few tables now we really have to make our tables earn their keep or our business will no longer be viable. So, we respectfully ask that you are time aware. Obviously if it is quiet and no one is booked onto your table after you it is fine for you to stay longer however you will need to confirm this with a member of the TaT team to be sure.
We need to allow 30 minutes of deep cleaning your dining area of the chairs and tables upon your departure in order to be ready for the next customer booked in.
Please be aware that upon your arrival we ask that you make us aware of your presence and then we will escort you to your table. It is worth mentioning here that as we have reverted back to the main blackboard menu it is a good idea to grab a screen shot on your phone of your menu to avoid you having to move from your table once seated.
We will come to you to take your order, please do not walk up to the counter past other customers on their tables. If you think you may have been overlooked just give us a smile and wave!
We have reconfigured the lay out of our indoor seating area. This means that we will have considerably less tables overall in our café. We do have screens now in place for your protection.
We can only take guests at single tables of up to 2 households or a support bubble or a maximum of 6 people on a table from any number of households.
Indoors or outdoors?
You can book either an indoor table or an outdoor one but you must take your place at whichever one you book, i.e if you book an indoor table and then the sun comes out you cannot just go outside and take up a table there. This is because we need to fill out our limited table space effectively and also because we would have to then spend an hour thorough cleaning both the inside table and the outside one as well! We do hope you understand.
Children
We respectfully ask that if you visit our café with children, they are under your supervision. Please use the hand sanitiser on your child’s hands upon arrival if they are old enough to be mobile.
We ask for the benefit of our other customers; you do not allow them to wander around outside of your designated table. We do have a limited number of highchairs for your use and when you book your table it is best to reserve a highchair so we can have it ready for you at your table.
If your child does wander away from your table, please be aware that the supervisor on in our café that day will ask for you to seat your child for the safety of other guests. Many of our customers will have been shielding and will feel still very vulnerable. We want everyone to feel safe when they visit us!
Takeaway Customers
We will still be operating as a takeaway as well as a café. If you are visiting as a takeaway customer, we ask that rather than entering our café, you catch our attention at the café door and allow us to take your order outside. We will then bring your order out to you. If the weather is not permissible for you to wait outside- simply let us know which vehicle you are driving, and we can wave at you when your order is ready. This minimises the number of customers/visitors to our café at any one time. It is preferable however that if you know you are visiting us for a takeout that you ring first, we can also take payment over the phone then as well. It also means you will not have to wait so long for your order.
Ventilation in our café
We will as much as possible whilst outside temperature permits keep our café door open so we can welcome in the fresh air and keep our café well ventilated. Please do not open the rear fire exit door in our café without first asking a member of our team.
Delivery of food and Drink to your table
When we deliver your food and drink to your table, we will now place cup/ plates cutlery on the end of your table for your convenience. We ask that you move the relevant dishes to your guests appropriately. This is so that we do not need to reach over you at your table and is for both your protection and our staff.
Cutlery, serviettes and cruets are no longer on the tables for self-service. We will bring your eating tools with your food to your table. It would be really helpful that if you know you will require certain specific condiments such as ketchup, brown sauce, vinegar, salt or pepper that you can tell a member of our staff at the earliest instance so we can have everything ready for you at your table ready for when you eat.
Payments
We will, as we have been so far during lockdown, avoiding the use of cash as much as possible. We prefer to take contactless payments by debit/credit card. If your total bill is over £45.00 then we will manually enter the numbers from your card so there is no need to touch the terminal.
Please note that if you are sitting outside to eat or drink, we will not be running any tabs, you will be asked to make payment when you place your order.
Outdoor Parking at our Café & Disabled Parking
As we have extended our outdoor seating area in line with spatial distancing we ask that if you are in good health and able to walk across the courtyard to our café that you park on the right hand side next to the field as you drive in to Spire Hill Farm this will then allow disabled drivers to park outside our café. We have a number of wheelchair visitors to our café and we would like to be able to ensure that there is parking available for them right outside our café fence.
Maintaining distancing
Please be aware of how close you are standing to other people in our café, minimum of 2 metres at any given opportunity. Please be aware that if we feel you or any of our customers begin to cluster too close together, we will ask you to spread out in line with distancing rules. We ask that you don’t take this request defensively but rather that we are trying to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Disposing of your takeaway waste
Please note that we now have a red bin placed in our café garden for customer use. It can be accessed from within our café garden but also from the outside of the fence too. If you have enjoyed a takeaway from us, we ask please that rather than handing your waste to a member of our staff or leaving it on our outdoor tables that you place your rubbish directly into the red bin for minimal handling by all. Any waste that our staff have to handle increases risk for us, so your respectful discrete handling of rubbish is much appreciated by us!
We have a regular cleaning schedule for our red waste bin with antibacterial spray outside for your protection.
And finally- your enjoyment at our café is as it has always been of the upmost importance. We want you to have a lovely time with us, we want to be able to keep our staff and of course us safe. We have a new learning curve and so you may need at times a little patience with us while we are finding our rhythm!
If you have any questions- as always, just come and find a member of our team and we will happily come to your aid and help in any way we can.
#HelpingusHelpingyou
We have a free-standing hand sanitiser in the doorway of the our café, it automatically dispenses so there is no requirement to touch it at all, to protect you from multiple contact by our customers.
We ask that you use this on entry every time to our café please, even if you go to your car or to the toilet, please use it again.
Track and Trace Records
In order to dine in our café, you will need to book in advance- even if you ring as you are leaving. We are obliged to keep records for 21 days of who visits our café after which the information is destroyed. The information we will require is simply your name, telephone number and time of arrival.
We can accept spontaneous visits providing you sit outside in our outdoor seating area. We may still ask you though for your details for our records.
You do have the right to refuse to give us this information, however if we feel it appropriate upon your refusal we also reserve the right to turn you away if we feel this is best at that time for the safety of our staff and customers. We like to think that we can work together with you our customers and you and our staff’s safety is paramount to us.
Indoor Dining
Booking is advisable for tables in the inside of our café.
We will be staggering our bookings so that all customers do not arrive at the same time.
Each booked table will be given a one and a half hour time allowance. We appreciate that this is not ideal and in the past, we have loved our ability to allow you to spend a leisurely amount of time enjoying your stay with us. However, with so few tables now we really have to make our tables earn their keep or our business will no longer be viable. So, we respectfully ask that you are time aware. Obviously if it is quiet and no one is booked onto your table after you it is fine for you to stay longer however you will need to confirm this with a member of the TaT team to be sure.
We need to allow 30 minutes of deep cleaning your dining area of the chairs and tables upon your departure in order to be ready for the next customer booked in.
Please be aware that upon your arrival we ask that you make us aware of your presence and then we will escort you to your table. It is worth mentioning here that as we have reverted back to the main blackboard menu it is a good idea to grab a screen shot on your phone of your menu to avoid you having to move from your table once seated.
We will come to you to take your order, please do not walk up to the counter past other customers on their tables. If you think you may have been overlooked just give us a smile and wave!
We have reconfigured the lay out of our indoor seating area. This means that we will have considerably less tables overall in our café. We do have screens now in place for your protection.
We can only take guests at single tables of up to 2 households or a support bubble or a maximum of 6 people on a table from any number of households.
Indoors or outdoors?
You can book either an indoor table or an outdoor one but you must take your place at whichever one you book, i.e if you book an indoor table and then the sun comes out you cannot just go outside and take up a table there. This is because we need to fill out our limited table space effectively and also because we would have to then spend an hour thorough cleaning both the inside table and the outside one as well! We do hope you understand.
Children
We respectfully ask that if you visit our café with children, they are under your supervision. Please use the hand sanitiser on your child’s hands upon arrival if they are old enough to be mobile.
We ask for the benefit of our other customers; you do not allow them to wander around outside of your designated table. We do have a limited number of highchairs for your use and when you book your table it is best to reserve a highchair so we can have it ready for you at your table.
If your child does wander away from your table, please be aware that the supervisor on in our café that day will ask for you to seat your child for the safety of other guests. Many of our customers will have been shielding and will feel still very vulnerable. We want everyone to feel safe when they visit us!
Takeaway Customers
We will still be operating as a takeaway as well as a café. If you are visiting as a takeaway customer, we ask that rather than entering our café, you catch our attention at the café door and allow us to take your order outside. We will then bring your order out to you. If the weather is not permissible for you to wait outside- simply let us know which vehicle you are driving, and we can wave at you when your order is ready. This minimises the number of customers/visitors to our café at any one time. It is preferable however that if you know you are visiting us for a takeout that you ring first, we can also take payment over the phone then as well. It also means you will not have to wait so long for your order.
Ventilation in our café
We will as much as possible whilst outside temperature permits keep our café door open so we can welcome in the fresh air and keep our café well ventilated. Please do not open the rear fire exit door in our café without first asking a member of our team.
Delivery of food and Drink to your table
When we deliver your food and drink to your table, we will now place cup/ plates cutlery on the end of your table for your convenience. We ask that you move the relevant dishes to your guests appropriately. This is so that we do not need to reach over you at your table and is for both your protection and our staff.
Cutlery, serviettes and cruets are no longer on the tables for self-service. We will bring your eating tools with your food to your table. It would be really helpful that if you know you will require certain specific condiments such as ketchup, brown sauce, vinegar, salt or pepper that you can tell a member of our staff at the earliest instance so we can have everything ready for you at your table ready for when you eat.
Payments
We will, as we have been so far during lockdown, avoiding the use of cash as much as possible. We prefer to take contactless payments by debit/credit card. If your total bill is over £45.00 then we will manually enter the numbers from your card so there is no need to touch the terminal.
Please note that if you are sitting outside to eat or drink, we will not be running any tabs, you will be asked to make payment when you place your order.
Outdoor Parking at our Café & Disabled Parking
As we have extended our outdoor seating area in line with spatial distancing we ask that if you are in good health and able to walk across the courtyard to our café that you park on the right hand side next to the field as you drive in to Spire Hill Farm this will then allow disabled drivers to park outside our café. We have a number of wheelchair visitors to our café and we would like to be able to ensure that there is parking available for them right outside our café fence.
Maintaining distancing
Please be aware of how close you are standing to other people in our café, minimum of 2 metres at any given opportunity. Please be aware that if we feel you or any of our customers begin to cluster too close together, we will ask you to spread out in line with distancing rules. We ask that you don’t take this request defensively but rather that we are trying to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Disposing of your takeaway waste
Please note that we now have a red bin placed in our café garden for customer use. It can be accessed from within our café garden but also from the outside of the fence too. If you have enjoyed a takeaway from us, we ask please that rather than handing your waste to a member of our staff or leaving it on our outdoor tables that you place your rubbish directly into the red bin for minimal handling by all. Any waste that our staff have to handle increases risk for us, so your respectful discrete handling of rubbish is much appreciated by us!
We have a regular cleaning schedule for our red waste bin with antibacterial spray outside for your protection.
And finally- your enjoyment at our café is as it has always been of the upmost importance. We want you to have a lovely time with us, we want to be able to keep our staff and of course us safe. We have a new learning curve and so you may need at times a little patience with us while we are finding our rhythm!
If you have any questions- as always, just come and find a member of our team and we will happily come to your aid and help in any way we can.
#HelpingusHelpingyou