Maybe it’s time to write down a few thoughts, the nights are getting colder, the air is crisper, the summer sun seems a distant memory. As the leaves change colour and the seasons change so does the business cycle of this small business.
The summer season has been and gone and the time to regroup is among us, although thinking time seems to be at a premium as we speak. The diary seems full, the workload is high and I find myself constantly planning the needed hours of family time and downtime, days and weeks in advance. This isn’t a woe is me, look how busy I am, it’s a “fuck me, another week has gone by and I still haven’t done XYZ.”
N.B. This includes setting up a new Facebook page as my personal page got hacked and due to the business page being linked, I have frozen myself out of all Facebook and Messenger contacts.
Taking it back to the end of summer 2022, I was overly optimistic in a new venue and my ability to source work with the van. Well that optimism soon became a hard dose of reality when we just got through the quiet season with help from a small dip into the savings. Ending the summer season in 2023, I was determined to strive for more opportunities to be ready in place. That dear reader leads to why I am so busy. With two pop up nights, a weekly rugby club night, a market each weekend and plenty of freelance chef work as well as the occasional private dining, this little bald asshole is what Micky Flanagan would describe as “double busy”.
To build on last year, the business has managed to set up two midweek pop ups. One being at a seaside village in a very stylish bar, the other a pop up night in one of the city’s most notorious brothels! . A lot of that sentence was about shock value but Studio 95 WAS the most infamous brothel in the city but due to covid lockdowns the building was sold, (it turns out that was one virus too many for people). it has since been brought by a group who have turned it into a very cool city hostel with a bar/ cafe downstairs. This team have a fantastic vibrancy and optimism, a group of owners who have launched the venue as a space for events in conjunction with women’s charities and have a real focus on making the building one of comfort and safety for both men and women. No one hides from the infamy, it’s just about building a new legacy for that once infamous venue.
The seaside pop up in the village is a smart looking, established bar that has a small regular crowd and serves up a fantastic pint. Thursday nights had a pop up night previously so it’s just a case of slotting in as a new supplier.
The push for pop ups was to hedge against the weather, the weather has and will again cost me money with training nights at the rugby club called off. Of course these training nights have become a fantastic and consistent night but in December of 2022 the weather was responsible for 4 continuous weeks of downpours with training being called off, and around Christmas isn’t the time you want to lose a consistent income. This is why the search for pop ups has been so appealing.
So now the new pop up venues give me an area where I can cook food that really excites me and a place for customers to eat or wait in the dry. They can relax having a drink with their food or while they wait for a takeaway. I myself am more sheltered from the wind and rain which makes cooking a lot more pleasant. The downside of course is not everything hits the ground running. Now by no means have they been unsuccessful, the food is going down with brilliant feedback, the people and contacts I have met have been extremely supportive and will help me in future developments whether it’s design, property or social media connections. The downside of the pop ups are they can be inconsistent at the moment, now in all fairness they have varied from a couple of hundred pounds a week and dozens of customers to the the rough week last week of stormy weather and being a few days after a big rugby weekend to the low of twenty pounds!.
Now I probably don’t have to tell you that a score for about ten hours work is not a successful week (it’s probably less than a Chinese kid making trainers) BUT and this but is as large as Kim Kardashian’s, If I didn’t go, due to it looking quiet, rainy, colder, I would have made FUCK ALL, you see if you go and try you may fail, of course you can that’s life. But you never know what could happen, you never know who you could serve, what that could lead to, how that may intertwine with your future fates, that’s the power of even one customer. IF you don’t show up, then it’s fuck all, no chance, game over. This means I’m going to take that chance every time. Ill show up smiling, ready to cook to the best of my ability. Hey, maybe next week It will be back to the hundreds, this is the uncertainty of having a small business. The effort may not always be instantly rewarded but each time you are laying a brick to a bigger structure. And this time I have a safety.
Where I am very lucky and grateful is my ability to pick up freelance chef work in a rugby stadium for a couple/ few shifts a week. This for me is “going to work”. Now don’t get me wrong, I get to chef with some great people who I have known for years, we laugh throughout the day, lots of the general staff are extremely pleasant, some are wonderfully miserable fucks, that’s always funny in itself, and although as physical as the work is, it’s all easy enough. BUT it’s not my food, it’s not my business, it’s not my customers, it’s a bit soulless in comparison. That’s a detachment I never feel with my business.
Now, if you have a job and your happy at said job then that’s a brilliant personal success, if you have found inner happiness in your daily role then you’re smashing it more than most and you should reflect on that success but this for me is “going to work”. I’ll always do my best, I’ll smile, and again the kitchen guys and girls are great fun but it doesn’t complete me internally anymore. The fact is that it makes me good money for performing a service, that might make me sound like a bit of a whore, but it gives me a cushion to pay the bills, there is less pressure on the pop ups to be instant successes and it’s not weather dependent. When you zoom out and look at the bigger picture there is a lot to be grateful for with the freelance cheffing, and it’ll pay me a lot more than whoring this face. The fact is, it helps out with bills, it helps out with my business and it gives me a lot more runway as well as a chance to reflect how lucky I am that I get to try to run my own business.
Another success that was introduced this summer was local markets alongside nights at the campsite. These led to some busy days and military planning to get from markets to the campsite but worth every bit of stress. The markets have been an awesome way to meet more customers, and interact with a wider customer base. The markets have a consistency of customers that support the business and on top of that a fantastic buzz and energy from organisers, customers and other stall holders. Again more contacts, more conversations, more engagement, more opportunities. In fact a contact I met has just revamped the van with some amazing graffiti graphics. Hopefully we have started to become regulars at a few markets meaning going forward we have at least one a weekend.
The business is steadily going forward and developing with a few hedges for security, whether it’s freelance work or pop ups the business is slowly becoming more resilient and finding its identity more. Although we may not be exactly where we want to be we are a looong way from where we were. For that I’m reflective and grateful.
It may take many many pop up nights, it may take many pop up kitchen locations, it may take many markets but we will continue to turn up and play the numbers. If the odds are 100/1 then we will be that 1. Consistency is key, durability is paramount, and we will keep cooking, even if it ends up just for one customer. Worst case I’ll just “go back to work” to allow me to keep playing business.
Happy eating
FOOD ANARCHY 