A husband and wife who were 'married' mid-lockdown by their five-year-old daughter have been spending what should have been their honeymoon redesigning their restaurant at Oakchurch Farm Shop.

Sandra Winnicka and Bruce Havard had been planning their wedding on April 18 until coronavirus not only put that on hold but closed their business for more than three months.

Wanting to mark the day in some way, they downloaded the wording of the marriage service, which five-year-old Liliana conducted while her three-year-old sister Nadia gave her mother away.

With no honeymoon to go on, and no opening in sight for the restaurant, the couple embarked on a re-think.

“We’ve used the time wisely," says Bruce. “It’s given us the ideal opportunity to think outside of the box. Totally changing the way that we do things and get ourselves ready to open to the public again with a safe environment for both our customers and staff.”

Where many restaurant owners have chosen to just remove tables to make more space between them, the innovative couple decided to install private booths so that every group of diners has its own safe space, thoroughly sanitised after every use and left empty for a decent period before seating the next.

“We wanted to keep the buzzy atmosphere of our busy restaurant and the booths have definitely made that possible," says Bruce. “To avoid human contact further we’ve dropped our self-service food counter in favour of individual table service by serving staff (wearing masks) and just one contactless payment on departure.”

With a change of menu and totally new look Bruce and Sandra decided it was also the right time for a change of name, and so Berries Restaurant has bcome The Pantry Restaurant and, having re-opened at the beginning of July, they are now participating in the Government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme which offers diners 50% off food and soft drinks, Monday to Wednesday until the end of August.