Ocean Road restaurant owners call for people to support local as lockdown restrictions are eased this weekend

Indian street food venue Delhi 6 and Indian Brasserie will welcome back their first customers since March this weekend after closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite facing uncertain times themselves, over the last three months staff at Delhi 6 have delivered 1,000 free meals for elderly and residents who were self-isolating.

“It was an absolute pleasure to be able to support our community during these tough times, we were blessed that we were able to help that many people,” said owner, Shah Lalon Amin.

“As a local lad, it was about us helping each other as a local community.”

It comes as the Gazette is campaigning for people to #SupportLocal to help the local economy recover from the coronavirus lockdown.

Now preparing to get his restaurant back up and running, Lalon has appealed to his community to do their bit for businesses in South Shields.

“South Shields and Ocean Road as a whole have really suffered the last three months and we really do need our residents to support local businesses,” he said.

“When you’re supporting a local business, you’re supporting the local economy and local families.

“These are really uncertain times at the moment and we have all suffered, but I hope to see customers coming back over the coming weeks and we want to make sure we can do that safely.”

Delhi 6 will reopen on Sunday, July 5 with three separate sittings over the course of the night to allow for social distancing.

But despite being fully-booked they can only safely cater for half of their usual capacity.

Likewise, Indian Brasserie has introduced strict social distancing measures for when it reopens on Saturday, July 4.

Owner, Habibur Rahman commented: “Without the support of our local customers we will never be able to survive.

“We’re a local family and a part of the community like everybody else - we played our part to help during the lockdown, now our main priority is making sure our customers are safe and that they see we have all the necessary measures in place and will keep coming back.”

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