A striking image of a restaurant experimenting with a new lay-out to accommodate social distancing starkly underlines why so many eateries are fearful of life after lockdown.

The picture was taken by bosses of GB Pizza Co, a popular and critically acclaimed restaurant which has been operating on Margate seafront since 2012.

It warned rearranging its interior seating to ensure social distancing could continue would slash the numbers in its restaurant by half to just 19 - a move which would make the business "unviable".

Owner Lisa Richards explained: "With social distancing, people are going to have to come up and get their food and they'll be no interactions at all - all the experiential stuff is not going to be there for a long time and that takes away a massive part of eating out.

"We're looking at Italy as it comes out of lockdown and you see tables in little trattorias with perspex screens around them and gelato stores with perspex screens around the staff and ice cream - it just looks awful. I don't want to run a restaurant like that. I don't want it to be like a liquor joint in some rough part of town where you have bullet proof glass between customers. It takes all the joy away.

"Eating out is a joyous experience. If that's stripped away do we have a hospitality industry any more?"

It remains to be seen as to when restaurants will once again be able to welcome customers.

Boris Johnson is expected to make a statement on Sunday outlining how the lockdown restrictions could be lifted. But it is feared eateries may be near the back of the queue when it comes to venues been given the green light once again.

The pizza boss added: "It's such a massive circle of unknowns. It makes the business really hard to run. I'm trying to be positive - I want to get that restaurant open.

"We've looked at all the scenarios we can think of and seen ideas being shared.

"There's a lot of talk that if you're clever, if you pivot, if you innovate you'll get through this, but I find that really patronising. What we're all trying to do, big or small, is try to make the small margins work for us.

"We assume we can operate at 50% of turnover, but will there still be as many people out on the streets, or are we operating with 50% footfall because people are being safe or cautious or people aren't travelling to the seaside as it's seen as an unnecessary journey.

"Are older couples going to worry about going out so we lose that sector of our demographic? I think there will be less people about.

"Safety of staff is paramount to us and we have a really small kitchen. It's only two metres long, basically just a sink, small oven and a pizza oven. Normally we'd have two people in there at any one time so that means even if were at great capacity we wouldn't be able to meet the demand as we could only have one person at any one time."

With social distancing expected to be in force until the virus is either eliminated or a vaccine successfully developed - with earliest estimates of that being sometime in 2021 - the way we go out to socialise is almost certain to look very different for months to come.

While many restaurants are struggling to work out just how to stay afloat with no customers coming through the doors and staff furloughed, perhaps the biggest hurdle they will face is winning back the confidence of diners who have been fed a relentless message by the government to avoid crowds and stay home for weeks.

A poll last month by YouGov suggested just 37% of those questioned would be comfortable to return to a restaurant once the lockdown was lifted.

Chef and restaurateur Richard Phillips runs the Pearson's Arms in Whitstable and Thackeray's in Tunbridge Wells.

"I think the best case scenario it will be two months before any restaurant opens up," he explains, "so if they relax the restrictions a little over the coming weeks by the time restaurants are allowed to open - and we will probably be the last bar concerts and football matches - by then people will be so used to social distancing.

"I'm hoping it will be set and they will be gagging to get to restaurants and pubs.

"As long as everyone adheres to all the regulations, and I'm sure the government will put us on a strict regime, then I think absolutely they should feel very safe and very welcome to come to us.

"People will have been going out for six to eight weeks and they'll be ready to venture into restaurants.

"People now naturally know to distance themselves and they're not going to expect our maître d' to shake their hand. Even things like the toilets, making sure we have someone on the door to allow a one-in, one-out system. But it can all be done professionally."

With the average profit margin for restaurants just 5%, it is not difficult to see how a dramatic reduction in the number of diners they are able to cater for could force many out of business.

Jonathan Downey has been one of the most influential figures in the UK food and drink industry over recent years opening a host of restaurants.

He is the driving force behind the Hospitality Union - an organisation set up in recent months and now representing more than 3,000 hospitality business owners, working to save restaurants, cafes and bars and the millions of jobs they support.

He explained: "Hospitality businesses, having been the first and hardest hit by the virus, will also be the last allowed to re-open.

"Without some extraordinary next measures, we estimate that more than half of hospitality businesses and as many as two million jobs will not survive."

He is calling on the government to "press pause" for nine months on payments hospitality outlets have to make for commercial rents and the debt and interest payments secured on those premises.

It comes after one of the industry's high profile investors, Chris Miller, chief executive of the White Rabbit Fund and a regular on the BBC's Million Pound Menu, recently told industry publication The Caterer he believed 40% of restaurants may never reopen.

He said: "There will be a massive shake-out of those just surviving. There are not huge margins in hospitality and a lot can't survive a 10% drop in turnover. My estimate is 60% will reopen, maybe more if government support or a vaccine happens rapidly."

It's certainly food for thought when it comes to further impact on our towns and villages - many of whom rely on restaurants to support evening economies and pull people into retail areas.

For GB Pizza, it is aware that other challenges face it and other traders in the town even if permission to re-open is given soon.

Explains owner Lisa Richards: "The next six months look very tricky. And with Dreamland being shut for the summer and the Turner Contemporary being closed from September to February for refurbishment, that is a very, very scary few months ahead of us in Margate.

"I'm going to fight to the death to survive but we can't operate while building up an enormous debt. But I'm really hoping we don't get to that point."

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