The Pilot Inn was damaged after a car crashed into the building at midnight on Saturday night causing extensive debris with the front wall of the pub being knocked down and windows dislodged, taking its restaurant area out of action.
The accident took around one third of its internal trading area out of action for the pub that can serve 1,000 meals a day.
Co-owner Niko Miaoulis, who runs the pub with wife Rachel and his two sons, told The Morning Advertiser he was “astonished” by the support and thanked staff and members of the local community for working through the night to board up the front of the pub and help them reopen for Sunday.
‘Astonished’
Miaoulis said the car crashed into the front of the pub at around midnight and the work WhatsApp group communicated to everyone at about 12.10am. By the time he arrived at the pub at 12.25am there were already 10 members of staff waiting to help. Members of the local community also came down to help get the pub reopened for midday the next day.
“We are astonished that the amount of help that we are still being offered and we have had literally had thousands of messages of support,” he said.
While a third of the pub, which has around 200 covers, is out of action they have the benefit of reasonable weather and a large area for outside dining, Miaoulis said.
“We are managing but it’s a struggle as we a very busy place,” he said.
He is determined to get the damaged area up and trading again as soon as possible and is already talking to builders. He hopes to get this temporarily trading in the next 10 days. He said that while the insurance company has been down already to view the damage “we’re taking the bill by the horns.”
“We are effectively driving everything already and I’m just getting them to agree with it. We’re minimising their losses because of the business interruption insurance and minimising our own losses by doing that,” he said.
Staff responsibility
Another reason for getting the pub back trading as normal is to protect their staff.
“We’ve got a large payroll of very excellent staff so we feel very responsible for them. We can’t just lay them off and say we’re closing for three months while we rebuild,” he added.
The couple purchased the freehold of the pub from Enterprise Inns, the leased pub operator that was sold to Stonegate in 2019, during the Covid pandemic bringing the pub into private ownership.
“You need to continue evolving. We constantly evolve this business because too many businesses are doing really well and then in 10 years like they wonder why there’s no customers coming through the door,” he said.
“We are very remote and we seem to still attract a high footfall. What keeps that coming is keeping ourselves interesting to customers.”
The pub is close to the sea in the heart of the Dungeness Nature Reserve. It does not take reservations and is famous for its fish and chips.
