Six weeks into lockdown and things at Chez Cornelius have settled into something approaching a routine:
I pop into the shop two or three times a week, collate a bunch of orders together, then either trolley them around the neighbourhood, jump on my bike if it's a bit further afield, or get Jani (cheers Jani!) to drive the bulkier stuff out to their grateful recipients.
But it's clear that things can't carry on for much longer like this, if for no other reason than we are running rather short of stock.
With the shop shut, it is very tricky to get new deliveries in - and with my wife now back at work full time (her lab is crunching the data from icu patients, to analyse why C-19 hits some folk so much worse) I can't leave my children to hang around an empty shop, on the off-chance a lorry full of German Helles turns up.
So I broached the subject of reopening at our weekly staff Zoom drinks. Mark, Miles and myself all agreed that whilst it's still too early- we should definitely start thinking about what steps we need to take to keep you all safe (and ensure that the only poisons you pick up in our shop are of the tasty kind)
Initial thoughts are that we need to do either a "front of house" service ( like our neighbours at Easter Greens ) or return to the grocer shop style service we had in place pre-lockdown, maybe with additional precautions (screens, stricter enforcement of social distancing, etc) We will also open with reduced hours, so that we can have two members of staff on at all time.
I'm sure that the Malignant Adulterer will make his own announcement in the next few days, but I expect we will be a little bit more cautious and leave it closer to the end of the month before we make our own tentative moves.
Until then, you can continue to email us a corneliusbeerandwine@hotmail.co.uk and place an order for delivery or collection. You can also buy online, either select mixed cases HERE, or choose from our some of our best sellers HERE.
I'm only putting a few dozen lines on the site (a mere fraction of our stock) - just to keep on top of things and make sure we don't disappoint anyone. If you have any particular request, then it's worth asking- we might well have a bottle or two.