AN innovative bar boss has introduced “chair bubbles” to allow households under tougher Covid restrictions to mix indoors.

Each chair will be surrounded by a perspex screen, along with every table, which management at the Red Door, in Rayleigh High Street, say will allow customers to mix indoors despite strict tier two rules - now in place across large part of Essex - dictating otherwise.

Bar bosses revealed the move will allow the independent cocktail bar to continue trading as normally as possible while more strict rules are in place.

Echo:

Leo Molossi, the managing director of the bar, told the Echo the “chair bubbles” are “a stroke of genius”, and offered his support to other businesses who may wish to follow suit.

The move was initially met with criticism on social media, but the bar saw swathes of positive feedback from customers over the weekend, Mr Molossi added.

Debbie Smith, general manager, said: “We were thinking of how staff are going to manage it, and we think this is the best way forward. The new rules are going to be hard to police.

“The 10pm curfew cut our trade in half, and the new restrictions will cut in half again.

“This will allow us to stay open and survive.”

The manager added: “The 10pm curfew isn’t working. [People] leave here socially distanced but are going to party elsewhere.”

Echo:

The bar took delivery of their screens yesterday morning, and are set to be up and running later this week.

Mr Molossi added: “It allows people in different households to sit together in a bar. They will be through a screen and a metre apart.

“We’re a family business. The safety of staff and customers is our number one priority.”

People who are from the same household can sit at a table without a screen.

The bar will continue to operate with full table service.

The Red Door say licensing officers have given the “chair bubbles” the green light.