The restaurant was forced to shut ahead of one of their busiest times.
The whole country is dealing with staff shortages in hospitality due to the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant. Left and right people are contracting the virus, or being called as close contacts, and then following government guidelines by restricting their movements to curb the spread. A side effect of this is that businesses are left without staff and Saint Francis Provisions in Kinsale is one such restaurant that has been affected by this. They have unfortunately been forced to close their doors today and tomorrow due to staff shortages.
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This is normally a busy time of year for hospitality, and for Saint Francis Provisions, so having to shut was not ideal. However, they came up with a great way to offset the cost of opening, by selling mystery bags of their food and wine. The bags would cost €50, and initially they made up 25 of them to see them through the closed days.
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Within three hours, all 25 bags were sold. Saint Francis began a waiting list to meet demand, as the mystery bags were so sought after. The restaurant was hugely grateful for the support, taking to
their Instagram to share the news.
"So we have sold all the mystery bags ( you guys are incredible) . All the lovely text messages, really emotional, really uplifting, thank you all so much . Have started a waiting list and if we have more to send out we will contact you . People are great . Wow ."
It just goes to show how people come together, even during difficult times! Hoping to see more of this as we enter into 2022.
Header image via Instagram/stfranciskinsale
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