The Case: Pre- & Post-Covid

The last few years have been very difficult for the Case and indeed the hospitality trade in general. The Covid pandemic has seen many pubs go out of business or at least slim down their operations. The Case has survived because of the perseverance of its volunteers, engendered by a sense of local community, and the fact it has managed to keep its overheads low. At times we had to close completely and then when allowed to reopen we had to gradually build our operations back up. In fact for the last couple of years, we have in effect been in recovery mode working towards providing our pre-Covid levels of operation.

Before the pandemic, we were open for 40 hours per week and we offered food on a regular basis – at lunchtimes on weekdays and roast dinners on a Sunday. Since our complete lock-down in March 2020 we have managed to increase our opening hours back to around half our pre-Covid levels and have started to offer food again but only at certain special events using a combination of the efforts of key volunteers and selected third party mobile food vendors. Although it is nice to be able to dream of a full return to our pre-Covid normal, the Case Management Committee have concluded that where we are now should be regarded as the new normal and that in reality we are unlikely to be able to extend our opening hours much more or offer food on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. So the publication of this web page (in January 2023) marks the official end of our Covid recovery phase and the launch of our post-Covid normal phase. This step is accompanied by a modest refresh of this web site – you’ll notice that obsolete food related items (eg. example menus) have disappeared from the menu structure and there are a number of other subtle changes.

If you’re interested in the history of all our Covid related ups and downs, all the relevant posts are still accessible on this web site. You can review the changing situation by looking back through our old News pages, but some of the key posts are:

• The Case and Covid-19,
• Covid: Second Wave Lockdown,
• Case to Open Up Inside: 21st May 2021,
• Jan 2022: Case Events On Hold,
• Getting Back To Normal.

If you’re a professional chef or a food vendor that would be interested in exploring ideas of how we might be able to re-introduce a regular food service at the Case in the future, then please get in touch with us. In the first instance, please email the chair of the Case Management Committee at chair@thecasepubbentley.co.uk