Oisin Rogers shares details about The Guinea Grill reopening with CODE

The news broke on Hot Dinners this morning that Mayfair pub The Guinea Grill is opening for alfresco dining a few weeks earlier than planned. Speaking to landlord Oisin Rogers about why he decided to change his mind, he tells CODE “we were planning to open on 17 May anyway, and there’s an awful lot of work to be done between now and then. I felt that we’d be unfurloughing staff soon to start preparing, and I thought if we were doing that we might as well put some tables on the street, set them up and put the full menu on!”

“The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to do it as quickly as we can,” says Rogers. “We’ve started taking bookings from Tuesday, although I am slightly concerned about the weather!” We’re sure the pub’s many fans won’t be too concerned if it rains, and Rogers revealed that the team started doing the bookings at 8am this morning and “the phone has not stopped ringing. So, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Having spoken to the chefs and suppliers yesterday, Rogers and his team decided to go ahead and open with a full restaurant menu outside. “The tables will be set with napkins and silver cutlery, and we will have full silver service outside,” he said. “We’d like people to sit down and have a nice bottle of Claret and a steak.” The menu features all The Guinea Grill favourites, including beef wellington, steak, kidney and mushroom pie, and grilled lamb cutlets.

In the meantime, the team will be getting ready to open The Guinea Grill, The Windmill and The Guinea Express for indoor dining in May. “We have some work to do! I’m getting new signage putting up on The Guinea Express tomorrow, we’re getting new furniture, lights and it’s getting a bit of a paint job. When you come back from being closed for three months, with an old building like the Guinea there is so many things that need fixing!” We can’t wait to be back.

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