What happens next?

Team Vanderlyle March 2020 Photograph by Charlotte Griffiths

Here we are, together, in the most interesting of times.

My overriding thought is that by the time you read this, the situation will have progressed significantly from my current location in (what will become) the quaint past. Right now chatter and speculation are all I have to work with. At present restaurants, bars and pubs in the UK remain open for business but a glance over to Continental Europe or the United States yields a grim inevitably that looks a lot like curfews, restricted opening hours and forced closures for all hospitality businesses.

This is likely to occur within the next two weeks for an unknowable length of time. 

The impact on all of us will be immeasurable and far-reaching. Those habits, those indulgences, those convenient grab and go lunches and those dinners out might, for some time, be memories and hopes, as ethereal as flight and frictionless travel. Everyone you know that works in the hospitality sector is currently trying their very best to stay sane and solvent, from the barista that steams the milk for your morning cappuccino on the way to the station, to the bartender who knows exactly how you like your Friday night cocktail. We are all in the same boat. We live to serve and the prospect of that avenue being closed to us, for an undefined period, is currently too terrifying to contemplate.

Working from home in self-isolation is categorically not an option for us. 

Cambridge has come so far in the last ten years and we now have a food and drink scene that thrives and pulses and vibrates with an energy and character that few other cities of our size do. It’s driven by hard-working and passionate individuals who wake up early and stay up late doing what they love: creating delicious food, serving great drinks and striving to give amazing service. Hospitality is now a life-blood that runs through the veins of a city that just a decade ago was mocked for its lack of character and independence. You could eat out every day for a year and still not take in all of Cambridge’s vibrant food scene. King’s College might bring the tourists here but the cafes, bars, restaurants and food trucks and stalls make sure they stay for longer than 15 minutes. 

The message then is simple and succinct: Support your local businesses, all of them, in whatever ways you can, whether it is buying vouchers, purchasing takeaway foods, dropping a note through the door or tweeting in solidarity. We will have to be creative, we will think of new ways to serve you. We will adapt and evolve and make changes where we want to and need to. We will cling on for as long as we can, desperately trying to do what we love and make you happy and keep you fed. 

So, yes, times are interesting. But one day they won’t be.

And when that time comes we will all want to go out for dinner. Let’s make sure we still can. 

(This piece was originally written on March 18th 2020 for the April issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine)