Covid-19 makes Sleaford chippy only one to deliver

Sam and Andreas Pavlou own Fillets fish and chip shop on Lincoln Road in town and had opted to close its doors for the first month after lockdown, but then tentatively reopened after learning more about how it can be done safely.

But Sam said they realised that many older and vulnerable customers were unable to visit due to self-isolating and so they have developed an app for ordering deliveries that people can download.

She said: “It is as new to us as it is the public, but anything that crops up we make changes.”

Initially customers could also use it to pre-order and collect but that became too much to manage with a limited staff due to safe distancing. The app has proven to be so popular that not just isolating people are using it and it has opened up a whole new market further afield, which means they will not stop the app when things return to normality, Sam said.

The app takes payment direct to avoid delivery drivers having to take cash. “We provide masks and gloves for all the staff but you cannot save on things like that,” said Sam.

“We are doing in excess of 100 deliveries a night which is crazy as we are only opening for four to five hours in an evening, Wednesday to Saturday.

“I could not ask more of my staff, they have taken everything on board and customers have been really understanding as we can only deliver to a limited number of people per night due to staffing.”

Meanwhile footfall to the shop has not shown any signs of dropping either, with a one-way system in place, taking orders as customers come in and a series of serving sections taking payments and handing over the food before exiting via the restaurant area, which is currently redundant. There is hand sanitiser at the entry and exit points too.

Sam has taken an online course in prevention and protection against coronavirus and taken guidance from the council’s environmental health department. “It was our choice to close on March 23 until we were happy we could cover every base. We feel strongly about it and hope it comes across to our regular customers.”

The couple also own Tiamo Italian restaurant in town but have opted to keep that closed as it would be less viable to convert it to a takeaway service.

○ Meanwhile, Browns Pie Shop of Steep Hill in Lincoln has also begun running a weekly ‘Pie Drop’ for Sleaford.

They announced the news last week, explaining they will drop off in Sleaford on Saturdays at 11.30am-12noon at the petrol station car park at Holdingham roundabout.

Charlotte McFarlane from the shop said: “We had requests from customers who formerly used Brown’s as to whether we would deliver, we said provided we could get a couple of orders together we would, and that’s exactly what they did, through social media they organised themselves for a group order.

“So, given the interest was there, we decided to make it a regular drop-off point.”

The selection of dishes listed on their website is delivered cold with instructions to heat up at home.

Online ordering is on their website www.brownspieshop.co.uk , via Facebook and by phone on 01522 527330.

○ Also, there were queues of cars at Sleaford’s KFC at the weekend as it reopened its drive-through service for customers.

It is now open 12-9pm seven days a week, but the restaurant remains closed.

A statement on their website said last week: “We’re reopening in a responsible way, this means we’ll be serving a limited menu to help the smaller kitchen teams maintain social distance.”