COVID-19 Updates

Last updated: 9am, 16th March 2021

WELCOMING YOU BACK SAFELY – AL FRESCO DINING

On the 14th of April, we’ll be re-opening our wonderful garden from Wednesdays to Sundays for classic pub-grub & drinks. ⁠ With table bookings now available for parties of up to six, we can’t wait to welcome you all back for a safe return.⁠ ⁠

What’s on offer:⁠

11 am – 12 pm – Coffee/Drinks/Cake⁠

12 pm – 5 pm – Pub Classics⁠

Take care and we’ll see you soon.

With very best wishes,

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated: 9am, 1st January 2021

OUR DOORS ARE CLOSED ONCE MORE

Sadly, the New Forest is now in TIER 4 and we are of course strictly following government legislation.

It is with heavy hearts that we have closed our doors once more but we will be in touch to let you know when we can welcome you back safely.

Take care and we’ll see you soon.

With very best wishes,

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated: 1pm, 27th November 2020

LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN (SAFELY)

Burley is currently in Tier 2. We have been busy updating all the new guidelines and cheerfully we are re-opening our doors on 3rd December.

From warming cocktails to delicious winter bites, we have added festive spirit, sparkle and safety.

With very best wishes,

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated: 8am, 2nd November 2020

As we face a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wellbeing of our guests, our partners and our team remains our absolute priority. So, in support of the efforts to control the spread, we sadly but responsibly, will be closing our doors from Thursday 5th November until Wednesday 2nd December.

If you have a booking with us during this time, we will be in touch as soon as we can to rearrange this with you. We thank you for your patience and we will of course continue to stay in touch through social media and our website whilst we are away.

In the meantime take care of each other, stay home, stay safe and we look forward to welcoming you back in December.

With very best wishes,

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated: 4pm, 26th May 2020

We’ve been longing to welcome you back to The Drift and following the most recent announcement made by Downing Street, our chefs are back in the kitchen and we’re all excited to be offering your favourites from our menu to take away and enjoy from Friday 5th June. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to dine in just yet.

As ever, your wellbeing is absolute priority, and you can be assured that health and safety has our complete attention. And as part of our commitment to you and our team, we’ve carried out with intense scrutiny an in-depth risk assessment and from this outlined five steps we’ll be taking to build on our long-standing cleanliness and safety procedures while of course, adhering to the strictest of World Health Organisation advice, and the procedures advised by local and international authorities.

Here’s how we’ll be offering The Drift experience to take away safely:

1. All team members to have completed additional hospitality COVID-19 hygiene and cleanliness training and assessment before returning to work. Followed by continued training.

2. Distance of 2 meters created to help maintain social distancing between you and other guests or our team – in particular when entering, when placing your order and when collecting your food and drink to take away. You will find new floor markings and one-way routes when entering.

Where social distancing cannot be maintained, face masks and other relevant PPE is provided for team members as a preventative measure to keep you and our team safe.

3. Hand sanitiser available near entrance, and for team members between taking orders and offering collection. Please note, our washrooms will not be open.

4. Enhanced food safety through updated sanitation guidelines and operational practices, including PPE for our kitchen team. We’re also limiting the number of team members on shift at any one time.

5. We’re introducing a new contactless approach, and only accepting contactless or card payments (no cash). Once you’ve ordered, we’ve created a separate area to wait while your food is freshly made to order – boxed, bagged, and ready for you to enjoy.

If you’re enjoying your food and drink to take away outdoors, please help us keep the forest free of litter by recycling your boxes with us or at home.

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated: 6pm, 9th April 2020

We hope you and your loved ones are healthy and safe at this time.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been focussed on looking after our people and protecting as many jobs as possible. The government’s scheme has been a real life-line and has now meant almost all of our team have now been furloughed, leaving just a core team working remotely, performing some necessary functions and round the clock security.

We have been inundated with heart-warming messages of support and thank lots of you who have rearranged any bookings impacted by closing our doors to a more appropriate time in the future; our teams are looking forward to welcoming you back. We have almost contacted everyone, but If you haven’t yet heard from us, we are still working our way through and will be in contact as soon as we can.

During these times we all need a little escapism, so while you may not be able to enjoy it fully, we’ll be bringing the New Forest to you over the coming weeks through our social channels, until you can return for yourself. We’ll be sharing easy home recipes, inspiring lifestyle and wellbeing tips and our best-loved forest scenes. You can also read our fourth edition of Forest & Home – released just last week.

And though we’re closed, lots of you have been very generously asking what you can do to help during this time, so if you’d like to purchase an e-gift voucher online to use when we’re back open, it would be very much appreciated. As a thank you, we’ll be adding an extra monetary spending bonus for every e-voucher ordered until the end of June, great for a gift or to treat yourself.

Stay safe, stay healthy and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director

 

Last updated, 10am, 25th March 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop, the wellbeing of our guests, our partners and our team remains our absolute priority. These are unprecedented times for us all and it’s important that we listen to the advice from the World Health Organisation and Downing Street.

With this in mind, it’s with a heavy heart that we have closed until further notice – We hope this will only be for a short-period of time.

If you have an existing booking with us between now and 30th June, you should shortly receive a call from us to rearrange your booking to a more appropriate time. If for any reason you don’t hear from us over the next few days, please email driftinn@newforesthotels.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Despite the uncertainty and concern at The Drift Inn we want to assure you we are prepared to respond to the enormous challenge we face in the hospitality industry and that this extraordinary measure has been taken in the interest of both our guests and our team.

During this time, we will continue to stay in touch through social media, our website, our newsletter and in-house magazine, Forest & Home.

We are working to support our team through these unsettling times and very much look forward to reopening where, when you’re ready, we’ll be here to welcome you with the New Forest hospitality that you’ve come to expect.

Over the past four years, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming many of you to the pub, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for the messages of support and continued loyalty.

With very best wishes,

Garry Baldwin, Managing Director