Windermere's popular Boaters Bar reopens for thousands of customers

The Boaters Bar, located on Glebe Road, Bowness-on-Windermere, reopened its doors on July 22 after taking the decision to close in the week earlier due to a shortage of staff brought on by the Covid pandemic.

WINDERMERE: Olivia at the Boater's Bar

The bar has the largest serving of craft beers, gins, wines, and spirits in the area and has been praised by the public for its high-quality service.

Olivia Hartley, general manager, who has been with the business since its beginning in 2019, described the bar’s resilience in the face of Covid and how it overcome the difficulties of lockdown.

She said: “At the moment business has been great.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth in our customer base and more people are learning about us and finding us.

“We have a lot of regulars coming in and we’ve been busier than ever since we reopened.

CHAMPAGNE: Boaters Bar has reopened this week and is busier than ever

“It’s doing really well so can’t complain.

“The current climate is doing wonders for us. It’s a nice place to work.

“During lockdown it was very hard for us as a relatively new business but we were lucky to be able to furlough our staff so we could keep them all.

“We adapted to everything and got through it in the end.

“It was difficult for us to close during lockdown, especially in the past week but then again everyone is in the same situation.

“We’ve got about 320 seats and they’re all full every day now.

"It must be thousands coming through the doors each day.

REOPEN: Windermere's popular bar is reopen

“We get a lot of locals and boater owners. For some of them it’s a second home. And of course, a whole host of tourists.

“It means our staff and regulars have a great relationship.

“We had to close due to staff shortages earlier this week which was a real shame. We would have been really busy.

“But we had to look after our staff and their safety is our priority. We made the decision on Monday just to make sure everyone was negative and we reopened on Thursday.

“We just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. We’re so busy and we want to work extra hard. It’s so hot and while our neighbours are shut it’s been so busy.

"There’s a real shortage for workers at the moment but we’ve got some great staff here who are doing such a great job.”

The bar is relaunching Live Music every weekend from Friday to Sunday.