31 March 2023 , 10:00
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A pub with a four-year-long waiting list for its Sunday roast is still trying to clear the backlog a year on.
The Bank Tavern in the Bristol City Centre made headlines last year after revealing it was seating tables that had been booked almost two years before.
Landlord Sam Gregory said he's flattered by the demand, but he's eager to get through the waitlist as quickly as possible.
He told The Mirror: "We have made a dent in it but we've stopped taking new bookings now."
The pub had grown in popularity due to its Sunday lunches.
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But the Covid-19 pandemic had created a major backlog in bookings and caused it to stop taking any more new bookings.
"The problem we have is we have two years of bookings that we missed during Covid", he said.
The pub had grown in popularity due to it's Sunday lunches. (Jake McPherson SWNS)"And we are only a small pub with seven tables. That's why demands were so advanced.
"Where we had to close during the various lockdowns and restrictions, we missed all those bookings but we made a decision we were going to honour them."
Sam said that his own family have been unable to grab a table at his pub, as the demand for a seat is so high.
"It's annoying for me as well because my family want to come down", he said
"I've said to my mum you can sit in the front room but she wants to eat in the bar."
The award-winning Bank Tavern in Bristol (Jake McPherson SWNS)"We are flattered, but in terms of admin it's a lot of administration for a very small team."
He said he's unable to predict when the waitlist will be cleared as often they are left waiting to hear back from families.
"We might owe you a booking and I email them and say 'I've got these two dates, are any of them good for you?'
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They might email back saying they want to check with their family and we have to wait for them to get back.
"Sometimes we're left waiting for people to get back to us. And sometimes our emails end up in the junk box, then we have to give them a ring. It's just phenomenally hard work."
Sam says he's unable to predict when the waitlist will be cleared (Western Daily Press)But the landlord is hopeful that the waitlist will be cleared and will take a more careful approach when he takes on new bookings.
"Any cancellations we get, we only offer them to people with missed bookings and we are slowly backfilling", he said
"Once we backfilled anybody we owed a booking to, we will open the diary again - but we are not going to have it open-ended.
"Maybe we will have it open just for six months so it doesn't get so ridiculous."
Despite the stress, Sam said people were still raving about the roast, and he looks forward to when the waitlist is finally completed.
Sam says he will have a restricted booking system when he opens up bookings again (Jake McPherson SWNS)"They still seem to like it, and it's good everyone is still raving about it.
"We are doing alright, we just need to get this waitlist to a manageable level."
The pub's online reservation system has been closed off for some time now and will hopefully open up again soon.
On the pub's website, it reads: "Bookings for Sunday roasts are now closed for the foreseeable future.
Though their daytime lunches are still "available for walk-ins."