The Coconut Tree extends pop up on the lawn - al fresco eating venue!

Back in April, The Coconut Tree Sri Lankan bar & restaurant launched an exciting - if unusual - community collaboration with St Paul’s Church in Cheltenham. For three-months, their flagship restaurant operated a 2,000 sq ft outdoor ‘pop up’ on the front lawn of the church next door.

Now, thanks to the resounding success of the collaborative community initiative, they have now confirmed that the pop-up will remain in situ until 30th September 2021.

Cheltenham Manager Naveen Rajamanikkam commented, “The community spirit here in Cheltenham has always been strong, but we have been blown away by the support over the last three months, and are so grateful to our neighbours at St Paul’s Church, for the opportunity to serve our locally-loved dishes in an outdoor setting.

As a restaurant with no outdoor space, being able to do this made all of the difference; in April, we estimate that we served more than 2,500 customers and 9,800 dishes at a time when we would have otherwise been closed. 

In May, despite indoor dining being allowed, we still served 5,500 customers with 20,800 dishes at the pop-up, including 2,000 Sri Lankan hoppers, and 300+ of our popular ‘Drunken Sri Lankan’ cocotails. It’s a real success story for us, and people keep coming back for more.”

St Paul’s Church vicar, Roger Widdecombe, said, “We love the Coconut Tree and what they’ve done for our community, so hosting the ‘pop up’ is a joy. We’re delighted that they’ll be staying until the end of the summer.”

Brand Director Anna Garrod said “The response from the local community has been incredible - in fact the whole of Gloucestershire! It’s a great example of the magic that can happen when a community works together in the face of a challenge.

Despite staff shortages hitting the industry, we recruited 10+ staff over the month of May to support the pop-up, and will be creating more opportunities over the summer, especially for young people, through the Kickstarter scheme.”

The street food pioneers also recently announced that they will extend the offer of 50% off for all ‘eat-in’ customers (Monday to Wednesday) until the end of January 2022 - this offer will apply at all sites, including the Cheltenham pop-up.

To book a table for the Cheltenham Coconut Tree ‘pop up on the lawn’ please visit: thecoconut-tree.com/cheltenham. The 2,000 sq ft pop-up seats up to sixty socially-distanced diners at a time and is open Monday - Saturday 5 - 10pm.