A YORK bar has been ordered to carry out major improvements after receiving one star in a food hygiene inspection.

Charlie's Pizzeria and the Hi Ho club, a pizza restaurant and bar on Feasegate, was awarded the food hygiene rating of one star, meaning that major improvements were necessary, following a City of York Council inspection on January 20.

Charlie Hudson, who opened the bar last year and previously worked for restaurant, pub and bar operator Mitchell and Butler's for 15 years, has explained that this rating was due to them not having an up to date hot water supply. 

Charlie opened her bar in August last year after originally planning to open in May, to mark her sister Cerys’ birthday, but missed the May date due to Covid restrictions. Cerys sadly died of cancer 10 years ago.

As The Press has previously reported, she had also planned to open in the February of last year before she herself was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo six months of chemotherapy.

She said: “It does not reflect our high hygiene standards at all, our kitchen management was actually praised, it is just very unfortunate we didn’t have the correct system for hot water.

“We lost £35,000 last year in rent with not being able to open when I got cancer, and then a further £25,000 this Christmas due to Omicron.

“We were due to have two new boilers when we were going to first open in March 2020, but due to Covid we couldn’t open.

“Then we lost all our opening money as we did not qualify for any Government help until we traded – but we could not start trading due to lockdown.”

York Press: Charlie's Pizzeria and the Hi Ho ClubCharlie's Pizzeria and the Hi Ho Club

The bar is now waiting for a reinspection within the next three months.

A spokesman for the City of York Council has previously told The Press that the council also suspects that the pandemic creating financial difficulties has had an impact on the food hygiene ratings in some of York's food businesses.

The inspection report stated that major improvements were necessary with the confidence in management, meaning that the manager had a varying record of compliance to hazards and control measures.

However, this does not mean that the inspector believed that the manager needs to be replaced - rather it refers to how well they achieved a good food hygiene performance in the inspection.

The report said that improvements were also necessary with the structural compliance of the bar, which refers to the cleanliness of the facilities and layout, meaning that the inspector believed more effort was needed to not fall below standards.

The report said the bar's food hygiene and safety measures were generally satisfactory, meaning that they are in the top 50 per cent of premises and standards are being maintained or improved.