(Bloomberg) --

London restaurants are finalizing plans to reopen on July 4 if they get the go-ahead from the U.K. government after the Covid-19 lockdown.

D&D London, which owns some of the city’s most famous restaurants, including Bluebird and Le Pont de la Tour, said it is preparing to reopen 17 U.K. establishments on that day. Announcements from other London restaurateurs are expected after a three-month shutdown.

Some are waiting to see if the government eases a requirement for two meters (6 feet 6 inches) of social distancing and also confirms its stated “ambition” to allow some hospitality businesses to open on July 4.

“We are going to open up gradually,” said Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive officer of D&D London, which owns 43 restaurants. The first includes those with terraces or with the space to accommodate social distancing. The company has ordered masks for staff and is planning to extend opening hours and stagger shifts for employees so they can avoid traveling in the rush hour. 

There are no plans for acrylic screens but decorative screens may be used to break up spaces so that half-empty dining rooms don’t look unattractive. There will be hand-sanitizers and guests will be invited to download menus on their phones to reduce physical contact. Staff safety will be a priority, with daily wellness checks for all, as well as personal protective equipment for front-of-house staff.

“We are creating layouts that work with physical distancing but will still look lovely,” Gunewardena said in an interview. ”We don’t want to look like hospitals. That is not the experience  people want to get when they arrive in our restaurants.”

The group’s first London establishments scheduled to open are: 14 Hills, Bluebird Chelsea; Madison; Skylon; Fiume; Orrery; Radici; Bluebird White City; Cantina del Ponte; Le Pont de la Tour; Coq d'Argent; German Gymnasium; and Paternoster Chophouse. Restaurants in Leeds and Manchester are also slated for the same day.

Some other restaurant companies have begun accepting bookings for establishments without making any announcements. These include the Caprice group, which is accepting booking at restaurants including the Ivy.

Others, including the Wolseley owners Corbin & King, are holding back.

“We shall certainly open on July 4 if permitted,” co-owner Jeremy King said in an interview. “But the government needs to confirm July 4. They seem to think that they can tell us on July 3 but quite a few of our staff gave up their London apartments and went home to Europe. If there is two weeks’ quarantine  for those staff to come into the country, which is bonkers, it will take time.”

“We certainly won’t open any restaurants if the rule is two meters.  One and a half would be workable.”

King said that much of the seating in the company’s restaurants is side by side rather than facing, and he hopes allowance will be made for that. He has previously voiced opposition to masks but said he’d accept them if they were mandatory or if individual members of staff wanted to wear them. Not all the restaurants would open at once, but the Wolseley would be among the first. 

Chef Yotam Ottolenghi is another restaurateur preparing to reopen.

“We are waiting for a final OK from the government for July 4,” he said in an interview.  “We would like to open gradually, say two of our locations around that time and the others a bit later. Maybe Nopi and Rovi around July 4 and then assess after a couple of weeks and decide on the others. We want to be cautious. We don’t know the social distancing and that would become a massive factor. Nopi and Rovi are relatively spacious.”

JKS, which has 16 London restaurants including Lyle’s in Shoreditch and Gymkhana in Mayfair, has its plans in place pending a government announcement. 

“We are still waiting for clarity as to what we are going to be allowed to do,” said CEO and co-founder Jyotin Sethi. “Our plan is site by site. Every site is different. In phase 1, we shall open four or five restaurants around that time, probably from July 8, and then take the learnings from those. We are not going to open 16 restaurants on the same day just because we are allowed to.”

“It will be a phased approach. The ones that will probably open first are the ones up and running with takeaway and delivery: Hoppers King’s Cross, our two sites in Borough Market (BAO and ASAP Pizza), maybe Brigadiers. Places like Kitchen Table and Gymkhana I expect to be toward the end. We have all scenarios planned and mapped out: two meters, 1.5 meters, one meter. We have staffing rotas for each and suppliers lined up. We are just waiting for the green light.”

Meanwhile, the list of restaurants that have no plans to reopen is growing. Le Caprice, which traces its history to 1947 and was a regular lunch spot for Princess Diana, has closed, though plans to open later at another site. Chef Brett Graham said he has no immediate plans to reopen the two-Michelin star Ledbury, in Notting Hill. The Michelin-starred Texture, in Mayfair, has also closed, as has Siren, a new fish restaurant at the Goring hotel, near Buckingham Palace.

Richard Vines is Chief Food Critic at Bloomberg. Follow him on Twitter @richardvines and Instagram @richard.vines.

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