Mareel café bar set to close three days a week due to staff shortages

MAREEL’S café bar is to be closed three days a week as Shetland Arts continues to struggle with staff shortages. 

The venue has been operating to reduced hours since early September, with Mareel updating customers weekly with the café bar’s latest opening hours.

Operator Shetland Arts has now said that the café bar will be closed every Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday for the foreseeable future.

Mareel is also already closed every Monday.

The café bar will be open from 5pm to 9pm on Thursdays, and 10am to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Tea, coffee, cakes, sandwiches and bottled/canned alcohol will be available from the front of house desk when the café bar is closed.

“As we’ve said before – we thank you for your patience during this difficult time in hospitality,” a post on the Mareel Facebook page said.

“We’d also like to take this opportunity to again shine a light on our current staff team who are working hard at the moment to keep everything running smoothly.

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“As we head into one of the busiest times of the year, remember to be kind – we’re all trying our best.”

On Tuesday Mareel published a post on its Facebook seeking to address recent feedback on the opening times.

Shetland Arts chief Graeme Howell previously said the charity’s future funding situation would become clearer in the coming months.

He added that once decisions on core funding from Shetland Charitable Trust and Creative Scotland were made, they would “need to review the structure of the organisation”.