Worthing restaurant delays reopening after tent area not deemed ‘outside’ space

Marketa Musilova, Kate Manktelow, Sarah Tinker-Taylor, David Lawrence and Adrian Oziebala at CrabShack in Worthing in 2019

A Worthing restaurant which had hoped to serve customers seated in an open-ended tent from Monday has had to delay its reopening.

It comes after the CrabShack in Worthing’s Marine Parade was visited by a Covid Compliance Officer, who deemed the tent located on the deck to be an extension of the ‘inside’ restaurant, rather than an ‘outdoor’ space.

Under the rules set to come into force on Monday, pubs, restaurants and cafes can only serve customers seated outside.

CrabShack said it would reopen on May 17 instead, when lockdown restrictions are due to be further lifted.

Until then, it will continue to do pre-ordered collections and takeaways on weekends.

The restaurant said in a post on its Facebook page: “Crabshacker’s ... We are really sorry to have to tell you all that we can no longer reopen for outside dining on April the 12th .

“After a visit from Covid Compliance Officer we have been told that the open ended tent we have over our deck is no longer deemed as outside but is now seen as an extension of our inside restaurant .

“Here are some pictures of our inside extension which we look forward to being able to seat you in from the new date of May the 17th .

“We will continue to do pre ordered collections and takeaways on Fridays , Saturdays and Sundays.”

The popular seafront restaurant made headlines recently after it was named one of the top 25 places in the world to watch the sunset – read more here.

At the time, owner Sarah Tinker-Taylor said they were ‘really looking forward’ to reopening on April 12.

“It will be great to be actually serving people again and giving them the whole package – we pride ourselves on our good, friendly service,” she said.

Find out which eateries will be reopening to customers from April 12 in Worthing here.