Chorlton favourite The Lead Station has taken the decision to close on Tuesdays due to the ‘exceptional’ challenges currently being faced by the restaurant business. The popular neighbourhood restaurant, on Beech Road, has opened seven days a week for 26 years.
Owner Nick De Souza, who’s run the bar and bistro since 2007, informed locals that they wouldn’t be opening on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future with a sign posted on the front door this week.
“For 26 years, save for the ping and pandemics, we have opened every day, to serve our loyal and lovely guests. But exceptional times need exceptional measures,” he said in the note.
“I am sorry to say that despite the relentless and tireless work of the team, due to shortages, I have made the difficult decision to close on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future.
“This is in order to give my team a deserved break and time to rest. We simply cannot operate as normal given the personnel shortages afflicting us and our industry. Everything you might hear about our sector and the difficulties in trying to operate normally at present, is true.
“We are not alone as an industry, but we are disproportionately affected by the headwinds blowing. The Brexit bonfire is raging and burning our prospects; the pandemic only added fuel to that fire.”
He also used the note to appeal for anyone looking for work to get in touch, adding that ‘my team are amazing, resilient and determined. We have bound together over the last few years and will continue to, but we need to build the side’.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, De Souza, who also owns Tariff & Dale in the Northern Quarter, cited the desperate shortage of chefs in Manchester hospitality as the main reason for the weeknight closure, and warned that for some operators, the issues could become ‘existential’. He also said that Brexit is the clear root cause.
“The UK’s benefitted from migrant workers for years, and to put up a sign that says ‘you’re not welcome’ to those that work in our economy, and disproportionately work in hospitality, is insane,” he said. “And because of our industry being transitory, there are lots of people that move around with it. It’s mobile, it’s easy for them to take their skills with them.
“It’s easy for Spanish, Italians, Polish, Eastern European, French - anyone could travel and come and work here, and now we just don’t have that supply. Chefs are in short supply because of Brexit, and the pandemic, so people who left then didn’t come back. And we’ve now pulled up the drawbridge.”
It was reported earlier this year that the proportion of EU workers having quit the UK is at its lowest level since 2019, while the overall number of people working in hospitality has dropped by 12% since the start of the pandemic.
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