Before Stanley Tucci was Stanley Tucci, he was just another out-of-work actor striving to make ends meet by pulling front-of-house shifts in a restaurant. “Like so many people in the arts, without the income and flexible hours that restaurant work affords,” he told me, “I would have struggled to support myself until I was able to do so as an actor.” The theatre star Anna-Jane Casey says she needed that work to sustain herself through gaps between jobs. Likewise, the Sherwood and Dear England writer James Graham says working in restaurants enabled him to take in shows and make contacts through numerous Edinburgh festivals. Or as Jamie Dornan says, about his barman years before his big break: “It’s great for learning people skills, communication and dealing with wankers. All very handy in entertainment.”
The hospitality sector, which provided all these brilliant, creative people with vital employment in the early years of their careers, faces unprecedented challenges. At least five British restaurants closed every day in 2023, up 45% from the year before. About 50 pubs closed every month in the first half of 2024. The newsbites at the bottom of my reviews online have become a litany of the fallen: farewell Cafe Kitty and Copper and Ink; goodbye Frenchie, and Beverley’s the Pig and Whistle. And it’s likely only to get worse. Post-Covid, the hospitality sector was granted 100% relief from business rates, which dropped to 75% in 2022. Next April it will be phased out altogether, adding a likely £1bn in costs. That comes on top of food and fuel price inflation and the general squeeze on incomes, which in turn has limited custom.
