After 15 years of Restaurant life, the last 7 as Restaurant owner, I decided a change was needed when my rent was again back up for renewal (the split shifts had taken their toll and I was feeling a little stale cuisine wise & jaded with the monotony of the daily grind).
I left June 1st 2018, on the 2nd I was straight into London to help cater and deliver some great food offers at High end sporting events, the bright lights of London and cutting edge cuisine (I soon had my Mojo back for catering, just what I needed) I basically retrained myself over the course of 2018 in London working for some of the best event caterers in town, testing myself to the limits.
A leap of faith January 2019 I purchased a very twee industrial unit in Romsey Near Winchester, kitted it out myself then set to work event catering, weddings, corporate, parties and alike.
The first year was great fun, meeting lots of new people & companies, a little slow but made great strides with local venues for the following year, building a business, life was looking rosier.
My last event was 8th March 2020, a TV awards ceremony for 200 Guests, for the rest of March I was cancelling & postponing events like everybody else by the end of March all had gone until October, barring the very optimistic!!
I took a job as a fishmonger for 10 weeks, with no signs of income, with obvious transferable skills albeit slow ones!! (those guys are super quick) I needed to do something for my own sanity and also financially as I have a family to look after.
Mid-June I am sat in the back garden, sun shining sipping a G&T with the family and it just hits me that what we need to do after watching yet another Boris News Conference is obvious.
Outside restaurant, lots of space, fantastic hygiene levels, and great food, Pizza fits the bill because everyone loves Pizza, unlike the restaurant I don’t need lots of skilled chefs, just me and two of my daughters (yes it does get interesting in the middle of a busy service).
I approached a local farmer about using his field I was thinking large marquee, outdoor seating, toilets, bars, parking, food ordering system, social distancing customers & staff this was going to be too costly. So I sent an email to several local wedding venues to see if they liked the idea and wanted to run with it. Thankfully Rownhams House could see the potential for both of us as a partnership to do well. We gave ourselves 10 days from meeting to opening an alfresco restaurant in the Garden.
The mad dash to get everything ready in time!!!
I have begged, borrowed, hired equipment
I have taught myself to cook authentic Neopolitan Pizzas in a wood fired oven( thanks Roberto), found & trained the staff, set up a basic online booking & payment system, (I am now getting more sophisticated and using Zapaygo a pre-order, pre-payment app) and hey presto a pop up kitchen
On the Monday we fired up the big orange beast with wood from the local farmer the oven reached 300 degrees not hot enough, we mixed our first dough on the Kenwood Major, the worst dough ever, the pizzas were rolled out all misshaped, we gave out some pizzas to the guys on the estate with our heads held low
Tuesday was marginally better.
Wednesday Then came my fantastic Italian Food chap from Alivini (we go way back) he brought me just the best Italian produce to try Bellisimmo!! We even go to his place to use his dough machine to make the dough required for the weekend.
Thursday we do a soft opening with friends and family (still 50 guests)
The food delivery from London arrives in time, as does the wood for the fire, the pop up kitchen goes up and guests arrive we get away with it!!! Everyone is over the moon. What was obvious was that people have been desperate to get out and meet, but safely
We come back to do the Friday & Saturday for real, the bookings had been unbelievable over 100 guests for each evening that saw me taking off after service on Friday evening to go to make more dough on a borrowed machine 20 miles away (thanks Alesandro)
The bookings are still coming, the appetite for outdoor dining does not look like it will subside (we have been lucky with the weather though)
Next up are sharing platters (for the same household) and take away click and collect pizzas from our kitchen.
If anyone is in Romsey drop me a line and we’d love to see you for a Pizza.
