Fine Dining To Feel Safe With

The doors are open and the tables are set, so Stephanie Mackintrye was straight out to visit some our top local restaurants to discover how they were offering fine dining with a feel-safe factor

- Stephanie Mackintrye

Ian Rhodes

LE TALBOOTH, DEDHAM

Ian Rhodes is the general manager for Le Talbooth in Dedham. Having worked with the company for 18 years, he knows every side of the business.

‘I was the head chef here for eight-and-a-half years and then for the past ten years I’ve been the general manager,’ explains Ian.

In fact Ian has always worked at Le Talbooth, even working for their outside catering arm at one point, so he’s ideally placed to oversee all of the food and beverage offer. Nevertheless, even with a vast amount of knowledge and expertise, these past three months have been challenging.

‘It’s unusual, yes, I will say that. As we speak, we have no weddings or events, so I’m based in the restaurant, but I’m pleased to tell you it’s been so busy. We are full every single session – it’s unbelievable.’

What’s also nice for Ian and his team is to hear the grateful thanks from returning customers. ‘We have so many people saying, “We are so pleased you are back open.”’

So how different does Le Talbooth look this side of lockdown? ‘We’re following all the guidelines, as you’d expect. We’ve extended our outside dining so that we can now seat 80 covers outside on our terrace. That’s about 80% of our customers outside dining. To make it possible we’ve extended the seating area so that people feel safe.’

They have also invested in and installed brand new sails over the terrace to create cosy canopies.