The Sunday roast is sacred to the British, which is why they go to the pub they trust every week. Hardly anyone knows how great the love for the traditional “Sunday roast” is better than Sam Gregory. His pub “The Bank Tavern” in Bristol is famous for its roast, so famous that it is already clear that no one will be able to enjoy it in 2024 who wasn’t quick to the keys on New Year’s Day. After just two hours the restaurant was fully booked for all Sunday dinners of the year.
“The Bank Tavern” is not one of those hip restaurants that are the place to be for a brief moment and then disappear into obscurity again. The pub has stood on the site for more than 200 years. Since 2019 at the latest, it has also been known beyond the city limits. The popularity boost came from “The Observer”, which recognized the pub for its roast. After that, Gregory was flooded with reservation requests.
The pub is small, there is only room for seven tables. The pub fills up quickly. While guests previously had to wait six months before they could try the roast, the waiting time increased to four years after the award, also due to a Corona backlog. A reservation stop was necessary. “We also have to admit that a four-year waiting list is ridiculous,” the pub said in an Instagram post at the time.
At the end of the year the good news came: reservations are possible again. “Let’s bring the internet down,” said an initial announcement. It should be on New Year’s Day at 10 a.m. It was taken into account that there might be a large rush for the seats. Customers had been asked online for patience and forbearance if there were any delays in bookings. But even Gregory hadn’t expected that the crowds would be so big that after two hours all the Sunday roasts would be fully booked for the entire year.
“When the places were gone and everything was fully booked, I received around 300 emails from people who said they couldn’t book because there were no more places available. That’s how great the interest was,” the innkeeper told the “BBC”. “We are overjoyed.” The only chance for those left empty-handed to get their Sunday roast from The Bank Tavern this year is to keep an eye on cancellations on the pub’s homepage.
Sources: BBC, Bristol Post, Falstaff
