The Bank Tavern: Bristol pub fills 2024 roast bookings in two hours

Pub landlord Sam Gregory runs the pub with his "landlady", Charlie the Irish Staffordshire bull terrier

An award-winning pub's bookings for roasts for the whole of 2024 filled up in just two hours.

The Bank Tavern, in Bristol, reopened bookings for its famous Sunday lunch after clearing a four year waiting list last year.

The pub opened spots for tables at 10:00 GMT on New Year's Day for the year and all dates were filled by midday.

Its landlord Sam Gregory told the BBC he is "over the moon".

The pub, based on John Street since the 1800s, saw demand skyrocket after winning the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2019 - turning a six month waiting list to four years.

He added that anyone who missed out on a booking for this year will have to keep an eye out for cancellation notices on their website, as they will not be running a cancellation list.

The Bank Tavern had to stop taking new reservations in 2019 after demand surged

Mr Gregory said: "Once the spots had gone and were all booked up, I had about 300 emails from people saying they could not book, but that is because they were unavailable. That is how big it was.

"We are over the moon, we did not realise demand would be so high."

He added that people want their roasts because they "do lots of things well, and a big attention to detail and we are consistent with our offering".

The Bank Tavern, which has seven tables, had to stop taking new reservations in 2019 after the award win because demand became unmanageable.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, it meant some bookings across two years were missed, and cancellations were offered those who missed out.

When the backlog was cleared last year, it meant the pub could then open the diary for 2024.

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