Hi guys, welcome to another episode of Chef Life. Today we're at the beautiful George
and Bargain with our friends Gareth and Andrew. Hi guys. Hi. Hello. So we've worked with you guys for five years nearly.
It's been a journey. So yes we've got now three tanks, looking at maybe four. Yep. And a bit of Gareth.
Whenever I think I'm doing a bit too much of mine. So yeah. So yeah, we wanted to like
this. And actually we kind of developed together and say that many of you guys are always fortunate
with different dishes in the kitchen and there's so many pretty good people you service in
Barnsley. And yes, we kind of want to start at the beginning like what brought you to
final George and stuff. I've just been talking about this morning. So we adopted a little boy.
Is this what you want them to talk about? Tell them right from the very beginning.
Like you want to talk about? We adopted a little boy and life was very tough with this little boy.
Maybe a lot more care needs and we anticipated and a lot more trauma than we anticipated.
Yes, little boy. So when we had some adult time, we needed to recharge our batteries and do bits
and pieces for ourselves and to make sure that obviously we were mentally stable to be able to
provide the care for this little boy that he needs. And what we used to do is go to coffee shops
because the kind of boy was socially unacceptable to be going to pub at lunchtime and having a few
pikes then going to the little ladders. Probably would have been in our insight. So we used to go
to coffee shops. But then when we came to Bond's Lake, we'd be living in Bond's. Bond's is our
hometown. Five minute walk away and we're home from the town centre. But there were nothing here
for us. So we always were venturing out every day to Leeds, to Sheffield, to Manchester some days.
And it wasn't just the coffee. We were in search of coffee because that's what we like.
But that alternative food offering. And the vibe and all the bits and pieces. But then what we found
us up having is they were in Leeds or something. They might get a phone call from the school and
we'd be like, oh, we need to run back to Bond's. And that really fast because the child needs it.
So that went on for a long period of time, maybe over a year. You were back at work. I was still
off work and I was a teacher. You was a hairdresser. And every time when I tried to go back to work,
our little placement with Briley came to struggle to the point where the social work kept into
me and they're saying it's not time for you to go back and you have some more time up.
So after about 18 months, I was nagging at Andrew saying, come on, surely there's more than me and
you that want a nice coffee shopping bond. Definitely. Let's try this. Let's do this. And our mindset
then was that we can both take our little lad's school. We can come and have some adult conversation
in a work environment and then we can go home and be together as a family after we've done
the life that we need to do. But also we're there in the locality in case our little lad needs us.
We can react to things and we can drop the shop if we need to drop the shop and hopefully build
like a better support network around us. That's why all George was born. And we were right. People
did want more. It wasn't just us that wanted something more from Bansley.
Yeah. And you guys looked at what's happening in Bansley from who died last time,
like the whole time to scale. Still Bansley.
Are people doing amazing? Yeah. It's like becoming like a destination where people are
coming from outside of town. And the council probably did say that. There was a number of
meetings we've had with them. Like I don't know if I'm involved in everything. I like to go to all
the meetings. I know everybody who knows bits and pieces because I'm like it's vested interest for
me to make sure our town survives. So we survive. So that's why I'm involved in all these local
meetings. I mean you just look at the weekend just gone, you know, Bansley live. It was the biggest,
the best that it's ever been. It was mobbed. And that's what the town needs. And as that's
developing, you know, we need to continue to develop as well, which we will do and push forward.
Do you always push forward? Like that's why I've always enjoyed your practices. You've always had
to continue whether it be technology focus or menu focus or the improvements to sign or like
kitchen to or the bakery you put in. It's great. You know, you don't just, I see so many outlets,
whether it be restaurant or whatever, just staying, put a lot of investment in and just stay in the
dorm. And that's fine for some people or people like us who get bored. We need to change. We need
that excitement and that draw and that. That keeps customers going to do that. Yeah. Customers will
say that to us. You know, customers will say, you know, it's always nice to come in here because
you never know what you're going to find something else. But you know what's new today, they're
expecting something from us. And if it goes quiet, you'll get customers asking you know,
what are you doing? What's going on? Because they know something's going to be going on.
Yeah. It's brilliant. But then biggest testament is that you're busy. But again, it's the same
basis, there are new faces too. And even on my Instagram, a lot of people always come down or
What's nice is it's the price of us sometimes as well, we've got a really lovely customer base
and actually that customer base, they're a cracking bunch of people. You know, we have some,
Banzer has its stigma, it has its kind of its thing attached to it all. But actually, we've got
some amazing people in Banzer, we've got some fantastic customers.
He's hidden gem. Yeah. Well, first out in town, I'd say, because I love the people.
But then more things come to mind. No, I mean, Garis from Sheffield, born and raised in Sheffield.
So not too far away. I was born and raised in Banzer, but we decided to move to Banzer together.
More money for your home. Yeah, more. Yeah. I like people, I like people,
trading bonds, my friends are in Banzer, they're like, yeah, where I've
took some route to be honest. But no, I think it's hidden gem.
But what I was saying, like with Fassadis particularly, is when you're downstairs and you're
meeting and greeting people, you see you're familiar as you see your regulars. But then,
you see some new faces and it's a constant thing, you know, you get this constant influx of new
people. Yeah. And it's just a steady stream and that's really nice. And then the occasional review
gets put on there where, you know, never been to this place before, love it. And it's, and it,
it means the world. As you know, you sell as a small business.
Those little bits that people give you, it really makes, just makes you want to do more.
It's funny, because the last two people who've been told, honestly, told that Mark from the hour
later might have been a part of the massive. And if both are similar, then they all said,
the same for us, as we're saying, one battery might contain very few. So how about you?
Right. Because you're taking that affection no matter what you do with your moods, what you guys
are doing, which I think is a fantastic consider to brunch and pushing the menu and things for a
local establishment, although I do to a Michelin place. I think suit perfection, shining,
building, staff, and premises, what's there to play more.
I really like how you guys, very free on site, you've got to take in those brand
ownership, a lot of other people in the office should want things to do.
But do you know why we did that? Because bonds, like you get on the phone to people and you go,
right, I want this, this, and this. And they go, human bonds, I know we don't come to that.
So for years, we've had like real, not bad situation, but like, like, you can't get the
cake, she can't get the bread, she can't do this, she can't do that. And I know that obviously,
working with you, you've done very well in terms of like helping us with certain
products that we need. But in terms of like these daily fresh white cakes and stuff, nobody was
cut. So you either do a set myself a challenge, I used to meet a guy from a supplier that we had
one with first start, and he wouldn't come to bonds, so I had to drive halfway. And he was to
meet me halfway at Wakefields, transfer brownies into the back of the car, and then drive back.
So does she. And then handing some of that.
So like, you know, as we've gone on and gone on and gone on and thought, well, I don't really
want to be spending like, you know, two hours going backwards and forwards doing that. And then
also having what he tells us we can have, we wanted to do some different things, we wanted to
obviously just be a bit more in control over things. And not have to do exchange in money in
the car. So that's exactly why we started because we just thought, right, let's do this.
Oh, wait, so then I'm thinking, well, you brought here through that, I know that's
been from the start, so I spent a lot of my time in London,
from buying coaches, and I wouldn't bring London up here. But I think you've done it.
This is you're forward facing the brand and the trends are happening down the path, and you're
bringing them up there like, it's a bit too small to say you brought. I think it's,
why shouldn't it be, you know, why should it take six years to some of the
staff down to get to York? I think what I've sometimes struggled with is when we've got an idea,
and I know, you know, you, you and Jen, we're kind enough to kind of take us down to London.
And we had that kind of experience down there. There's new products, the bits and pieces that
come out that you think we so need to be on the back of that. And you bring it up here, and then
it's just a very, very, very slow start. And I think some people are just not that quick to make
that move until there's more of a hype with it elsewhere. And then they're like, Oh, well,
they do that. So we'll start doing that. So then our problem is, how far do you try that before
you kind of push back? But actually, there's a lot of people that are interested in a lot of other
things. I would assume your core customers are like theory adopters today was you could, you push
it with different drinks and different menu items. I think the fume rather than the pumpkins and you guys that are
that think the literary or that look too funky. I try that, you know, by the woodenness of the giant
cluster or where, yeah. So I think that's me is
to be able to push it down. Yeah, I mean, social media is we all know is
huge. And as Gareth has described social media before as the baby of the business. And if you
don't feed the baby, you don't look after the baby, the baby's not going to be happy. So we notice
the direct impact on social media. So if we do some really great posts in the morning, then we
notice the direct influence in the sales that kind of go through the day and what we're actually
selling. So if there's a particular product that we want to push, then we can make that happen.
Yeah, as long as the social media is there to back it up. Yeah. But you've got everything we do now.
We always say to staff, but is it Instagram ready? Because it's okay.
Do like a really nice fancy post and a beautiful picture. And then that customer then comes to
your premises from that picture. And then they get something that's completely doesn't resemble
what they've seen on post. So then straight away that person's then got, they haven't even tried
it, but they've got a negative opinion about your dish. So that's why everything that comes out on
the table drink wise has got to be Instagram runner. And that's what we said to everybody, isn't it?
Is it ready for Instagram? If it's not ready for Instagram, then you just need to hear the customer's table.
Yeah, that's the right product. It's absolutely perfect. So thinking about sometimes our problem is
again, we actually love the products and things and work with them because we like to sell them in
other places and then we run them in a bar, drive colleagues to have a bar, an art studio,
their own business. So yeah, it doesn't give you guys the impression I want to give, you know,
chance likes, but across the board, equally, to them.
But we have that same thing. Yeah. We've got 30-odd staff now. You see, you know,
Cross-Dem-Saxon and Andrew's the HR department with all these forms and stuff that he likes.
I didn't sign up for it, but I got it. That's exactly what I'm saying. You know, we have dress
codes. It doesn't mean that people follow the dress codes. No, I mean, it was only like yesterday
that I had to kind of approach somebody the other day, you know, for kind of chip-topping broke
Neil Pat, Neil Vines or something. It's something minor, but actually, serving to that customer,
he's not minor. Yeah. Oh, it irritates me. So my biggest thing is, yeah, I was like,
right, I was driving for people, so I just took her over to the bus, you know, but, no, it's,
it's little things that I don't want to give you, but I shouldn't let it slide.
Why do they have that association? It irritates me.
Then I think that shows that you've got the care of that business. And it's all the little
tiny details that people don't even realise, like, daff things like sweeping over in the stairs and,
you know, just really daff things that I notice. Because if we go to venues, that's the first thing
we notice, like our eyes are all over the place, like looking at bits and pieces that they've missed.
And if we see that, our customers are going to see that. We don't want that to happen to them.
We try and instill this kind of, with some of the stuff that we've kind of opened in the shop,
before we open the shop, put your personalised on. And what that means is just that, you know,
like pretend you're a customer, go outside of the shop, walk to the shop, what do you see?
Look at these bits that customers would actually be looking for.
Which is great, because we're in a lovely town centre environment, lots of drugs around,
so you can imagine all the kind of stuff they do on a daily basis, just to make sure that we have,
you know, the first impressions kind of, so our first impression just isn't here when I'm sat here
with you. Our first impression is that person across the road walks walking towards us.
Like boxes, you know, just on the side or like empty cover boxes,
shove it to the side of the window or something, no, it's not. And actually as a customer,
if you're sat, you've got a longer time to kind of cast your eyes around that room
and see these little bits and all those little bits actually add up to something much bigger.
Oh yeah, absolutely. And customers have come to expect a level.
Yeah, no, I didn't think the same thing for me, but then the way I look at it,
it's different that I, you know, I feed my little bit, it's ninja like,
you know, I don't react to people I hate and things that are worth us taking a chance on,
when we work here, so I want to make sure that they get paid and that's what I'm going to secure
into them. So pull the little bits, you get enough little bits from, but so relax. But I think what
irritates me the most is, you say, for example, about journalism, he doesn't, he doesn't wear a thing though,
tells me girls, but he's clicking it and he's like, you'll get, you'll get, you can see that.
Why do we have to keep having the same conversation, so we can show mine?
But it's your safety. Yeah, I think the fundamental that's it, it's your safety and I'm only trying
to do what I can do. You have a seatbelt. Yeah, yeah, you know, or like, what you talk about,
don't have things that, you know, super things. I'm like, it's, because again, we're going into
lovely stuff, like it's funny when we just used to do that, but there's more of this stuff, you
could tell that being fun to look, but it's not a staff, it's a degree to the arts.
So they're now going to be like, sell up to some of the restaurants that we go to online.
You guys have good impressions. You've got like, say, you've got all this attention to these
other evidence, but some slot guy walking in, you know, so we've noticed this is changing
that. So there's some people who come to do the deliveries now that they're amazing.
And not just like, they look well presented. The kinds and the considerate, they're always helpful,
even if it's not kind of their job to do so. And they're just trying, you see, there's that care
and the chatty and it's nice and they actually have conversation and it's really nice to have.
Good. No, I'm not. It's nice to hear that. The thing I see is that again, everyone has a good
experience. Because you know, like, you know, you can go elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah.
So how long you've been now? Six years? Yeah, six and a half years. So exactly what you imagine?
No. What's been your biggest hype?
I mean, if you take back to the when we first opened, the expectation of what our business
was going to be was Gareth to be doing the upstairs of the shop running on his own
and somebody to make the odd sandwich to the day.
30-staff deep.
And on this night alone, on a Saturday, we had 12, 14 people on shift. Yeah.
So 15,000 steps on a shift.
I think we've listened to customers and that's been the biggest changing factor,
not because we wouldn't listen to customers to start with, but we brought something.
And then very quickly, you realised that actually needed more.
But we did realise it needed more. Hence why we chased that more element of it. But then
equally became like you said, that I'm feeding now, not just our family, but I'm feeding 30
other families or whatever. Then that all became on our shoulders that we've been chasing that
next thing or not chasing the next thing, but obviously chasing just to hit the same week
as what you have before to try and survive. And then because you're that much bigger,
your survival rate is a lot higher and your achievement needs to be higher because you've
got all them kind of debts associated with it. We're very lucky though that all for our way
we'd be self-funded because I know loads of people in the industry that like waiting for COVID got
loads of lovely nice debts and they've got fantastic buildings and the premises look amazing.
Then COVID happened and we were like, oh, they've all survived like people I know that survived
during COVID. But then now they've got this massive debt to pay just because they're a nice fancy
reefer that they had. But also they've got all the other ongoing costs and stuff that they've had.
So luckily we haven't got that element of it. If I wanted a new coffee machine, we've saved up for
it. And then we've managed to buy the new coffee machine. If we want to do an area up, we've saved
up for it and then we've done that area up. And it's slower. Yeah. It's slower process. Yeah.
It took us a year to move the kitchen upstairs and then finally to use that space that we're using
downstairs. It took us a year to have the windows done, have fancy new tables, have all the bits
and pieces done. And it's stuff that people don't realise like we're probably 20 or 30,000 into
downstairs and it's a little tiny room. And the amount of stuff that's gone into it's unbelievable.
The garden, I mean, it's really soft.
Nice to keep changing.
But otherwise, it's why I like it because I think you guys are getting a good
price on this menu, premises and everything really. Like when you first did that, I was
really up and check.
Yeah. That keeps you. I love the colour going in downstairs. It's called elephant's breath.
We're not the people that I told you, it's like you got to add and stuff.
That's what we've got to do. It amazes me that I was the power of Jack and Ryan's
family.
I didn't think I went into a thing.
No.
So it turned out to be the biggest challenge.
Have you hit what you wanted with Frightening Light? Have you hit those social cues that you
want to add? I think we hit what we planned to do. I don't think we've got there because
there's more than what we expected from the family. We're still able to take him to school
in the morning. We're still there to be able to act the school we had to be. And that's a huge thing.
And we're only talking to somebody the other day about, you know, if his routine is disrupted,
then he just kind of encodes. So that element. I think that because how busy we're being,
that's been a restriction, not restriction, that's been a sometimes a negative effect on
Ryla because we love this business. It's our second baby and we've obviously had to give that
loving attention to this second baby. And even if we are sat on a beach or something somewhere
and you know the few holidays that we had over the years, we're still thinking about what we're
still communicating. We're still making sure that things are okay. We're still working when we're
outside of the home. I take my laptop away from me. Gareth on his phone. So on holiday, Gareth,
every evening laid on the bed kind of going through messages, replying to emails, sorting
other bits and pieces out. And there's me sometimes. I'm going in and reprogramming something on
my laptop because this isn't working. So it is constant, but that doesn't mean that we don't
want to do it. We love it. Yeah. Actually, that stress element of it, that chasing that adrenaline
almost, there's that element there. So Jen, Jen, but any, any hour, we tell she's in a mood.
And I'm like, well, just like, just leave me, just leave me be to do it. But then at the same time,
from our point of view, and maybe it's slightly different, I don't think it probably is. It's
not going to be the much difference. But from our point of view, because I'll say to Gareth, like,
just have fun, you know, just turn it off, just ignore it. It's okay. But actually,
you think about kind of how we are as a society now. And somebody's inquiring, they want to book
a party, they want to book a table for tomorrow. For the next week, whatever it is, and they might
message three, four, five different establishments, businesses. And sometimes it's not the preference
that they go for, it's the person that responds the quickest. So Gareth's always on about that.
Yeah, I agree with that. So like, someone gets a touch with us.
Because you form that connection, you form that bond of that person, and then it becomes like,
so like, what Andrew's referring to is like things like baby showers.
So like, I'm like messaging them back straight away, and it might be 10 o'clock at night,
it might be even later, that we've done like messages when they message us.
Because that doesn't exist anymore. So to me, I'm chasing that because I know that like maybe
a baby shower is a thousand pounds to us. You know, that's better in that, you know, like,
we've got that budget sitting out our thing probably. I think, oh, I'll message them back
next morning. And then like Andrew said, that other person's message and back.
Because it's about first thousand pounds.
To your point, yeah. Like, Jane and why we're a once baby shower, she's thinking about it.
Yeah, yeah.
And you're showing that level of service and care.
She gets the bond and she moves forward.
I understand that this sounds really deep, but sometimes we've had really dark moments for
Riley, like in giving up moments. Like,
we've had a couple of key kind of people that have been able to help us through some pretty
patches. And one was like kind of the deputy head teacher of the school and stuff, but actually
without a few core people, our relationship would have brought down.
Right. And I know I was saying that like, I think without all George, I think we would have
brought down as well because we say when you had really, really tough times. And I mean,
like you can't imagine how tough it were. Like I could go on for hours.
But like we've been able to distract yourself by putting yourself into our judge and not
really thinking about not thinking about, but like maybe that distraction has helped us being
able to survive as a family like moving forward.
It has.
And that's that's better than you do.
I want to put it in the end.
But Riley's got a great attachment to here as well.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
He loves that.
Thanks.
That's what it is.
But then I think so my dad has done this and I remember going, that was the best experience
I have.
And yeah, I've been through to me.
She loves coming here and you know, she's nice to be, you know, and you've been in it.
It's nice to see that she's quite happy to be in.
I'll get out of that.
But then it's too heavy now.
She's once crazy from the big money.
And it's constantly a little rubber chocolate.
My chocolate's so dumb.
So I like it.
I like that.
She's just nice.
But then, no, but then I think that's that's testament to you guys and his experience
in running the channel.
So you just have a little, a little laugh.
And it's all over it.
And you know, you know, I want to get a little bit of stuff.
And I have to sing that.
That's all the plastic shit you can buy.
And that's what you'll get.
Yeah, that's it.
And the second book, you know, she'll hear the work and think that I've got an interesting
philosophy for you guys.
If that was troubles, I would have a time to.
But yeah, it's cool.
I think Riley thinks that, you know, when, when he's of an age where he can have a proper
job, that, you know, he's just going to be the boss of everybody.
Going to be able to tell everybody off and sit in a desk and that same sort of.
Yeah.
Maybe millions.
And I've got, I don't know, specifically thinking.
I think I'm saying before I'm in there, I can say, cheers.
And I got to say, good night.
So.
Well, no, I'm not with it.
I think I like.
I think that's because you're a survivor.
Yeah.
And if you're not a survivor in this industry or in any kind of like self-employed industry,
that if you don't, you're not able to survive or you're able to, to change and adapt.
Yeah.
And all then kind of like skills that you need, then all the people that aren't, then people
you will see fail.
Yeah.
And unfortunately you see it all the time, like in Balancing the last couple of weeks,
we've seen three places closed.
And one of them we're only open for three months and then gone.
But people like don't realize how hard it actually is.
Oh yeah.
Loads of people will come to us and go, oh, I'd love to have a coffee shop.
I'm going to do one when I retire.
And I'm like, we're laughing thinking that, do you not realize how much work it is?
You know, I've been in hospital.
Yeah.
I've been, I've been like, you know, operations and bits of things on my heart.
And the next morning I'm sat there doing payroll from, from the hospital back.
Because if I don't do it, and Andrew doesn't do it, who's going to do it?
I remember Jen, going to say, going to say, yeah, I was in hospital.
So I did the other thing.
She was like, well, you just told me, so yeah, I think it's like, I don't know.
I don't know.
I was like, that's a bit easier than it is at any time.
That's a good time.
So yeah.
But no, I did.
So I think, I think COVID had stopped.
I suppose we had, we were able to pivot, although I'm actually, the disaster into the
whole of the liberties.
Whereas to get to the good new guys, just that they're shut.
And then people so thought, the box are the guys with the brownie boxes.
But it took a bit of time to suppose get that rocking.
Whereas we, we were fortunate.
So Mark, we're out here.
We out here.
So we can turn it off.
I mean, financially, where we did that for us as well.
Yeah.
You know, closing for like weeks at a time, not knowing what you were doing, chucking stuff
away because you thought the government had told you that the insurance were going to pay
all these kind of things.
Stand by yourself and we'll stand by you.
And it just didn't pay off.
No.
It would have been better for us just to say, see you later to everybody.
Yeah.
Then, you know, try and rejoin people.
But then you've got this connection with your staff as well.
You've got this relationship.
You build this like kind of family in a way.
Yeah.
But I miss it.
It's an interesting family, but it's a family.
I miss it.
Who did all right?
We did.
We did all right during COVID.
Yeah.
And the little bits of help that the government gave was okay.
You know, the kind of kept you going.
And then all the other things that like the brownie boxes, the opening, the takeout coffees
and stuff was okay.
We managed to survive.
Well, Q.
Yeah.
The police came down and it was like.
Yeah.
We said we were going to open at like 10 o'clock or something.
Yeah.
And we were all here at like eight o'clock.
We were getting the cakes we're doing.
You know, we were having some coffee.
Like in, I think, you know, yeah, it's nice to drink our apopo cup.
Because obviously at that point, we were, you know, we were masked and visors and we'd put
a one-way system in and stuff ready for kind of people to be in.
We did a few cakes.
You know, we'd done, I don't know how many did we do, about two, three hundred?
Something like that.
Cakes or something?
Something.
Well, that's a few.
So we did that and thought, well, you know, if we decide that we'll open tomorrow,
then we'll be fine kind of thing.
So I, like, I washed windows, again, first impressions,
you know, accounts and stuff and I'm like, what's your thinking?
People are queuing.
It's like, only I'll have you.
I'm like, no.
So then we were like, carry on washing, then looking out, I'm like, you couldn't see where
the queue ended.
No.
It's like we're all the way up the road.
And then the numbers came in a little bit later, you know, like,
you want to see the queue outside.
I came down and I took a picture.
So in the end, we opened the door about half an hour earlier.
So about half an hour, we opened the door and by, I think it was a quarter to ten
with this, we sold out.
So me being reactive, I'm like, get waffle machine on, get this one, get that on.
So we'd like, we built a little waffle station within 20 minutes.
And then when we started talking to people, because obviously to us, talking is the biggest
part of our business, the communication, the interaction.
So we were all talking to people coming through and then it was like, oh, I've been waiting
an hour.
I'm like, oh my God, waiting an hour.
And then it was two hours.
Then it was three hours.
And then the police were here directing people in the queue.
Then calendar news were here.
Then it was like, oh my God, you know,
that's testament to you guys, testament to everything that's been discussed around what
you feel, what customers think this part of our business is about.
Because they were other places, you weren't the only game in town.
No.
I mean, the customers were brilliant.
You know, the socially distanced very well.
But when the police stopped them, they were like, what are you doing?
We're like, we're waiting in here.
Why?
Because we want to go there.
But there's other coffees.
You can get other coffees elsewhere.
It's like, but we want to go to full charge.
I mean, they kind of thought it was the next morning.
And said, yeah, we're real pleased.
But however, we can't have this in the town centre.
So we need to try and do something else.
But we started that.
Yeah.
So next week, we had like an online ordering system.
It gave them a time to collect all these bit,
so technological context.
I think we are always at this where we use business
products for doing so well is we put that back against the law.
So hopefully, our lead audience, Johnny,
was doing security, lead not to put the website on the shop
by straight away, put that collection back to the site.
Within half a day, you know, where they took smart investors,
montains, all over the town, and then put that thing.
That's what I'm at.
You know, that's what I like about the same new guys
where you can have an idea of what they want
and see what they want.
And I think that's what we can do fresh.
Especially because I find in that,
what is available in town.
For you guys, I still say I don't know what
I'm getting into, how busy you are, all this stuff.
I mean, you go on like the review platforms
and bits and pieces and you see kind of how you're rated.
And that's nice to see.
Yeah.
But again, you can just go on like,
yeah, let them know.
Going back to all things.
You know, that's it.
That's a bump somewhere though.
Actually, COVID, you know, was really hard to kind of get through.
And we thought at the time, you know,
we're never going to survive this, but we got through it.
Since then, I think there's been additional challenges.
On last year, in fact, on last year,
harder than COVID.
I agree.
Yeah, I agree.
That's really, I think,
it's still the talk.
So, don't be so happy.
People dying of heartache on the internet.
Yeah.
I mean, you're trying not to kind of go on that kind of down the spiral,
but it's unnerving sometimes.
And like Gareth was saying about, you know, businesses closing,
people don't realise how hard it is and the cost.
They're involved with everything as well.
But when like, you have new places opening all the time in Barnesley,
which is brilliant, and for the town centre, it's fantastic.
And actually for us, it's fantastic because we, it's nice to kind of
keep yourself on your toes a little bit to kind of keep your looking forward.
But you need more people in town to be able to kind of bring people around as well.
We need businesses.
So when businesses are being open and you've got customers coming in,
oh, we've got another competition.
That's brilliant.
Yeah, that's really, really good.
We need more businesses and we would encourage more businesses to come in.
Well, we work.
We don't want to, we don't want people to fail.
So when they close, it's a damn right shame.
Oh, but then you see why trying some...
But, Barnesley, Wakefield doesn't have a lot of new stuff.
So town centre there, since it's been built during the team,
where's the thing, although it will, it's everything.
It's still vibrant up here.
It's still, like I say, businesses are open up here.
There's no dead ends at town.
There is.
But it's not like...
No, it's quite like Wakefield.
I think we've just seen like a big shift of things that's happening,
where we're looking at bars that have got some affluent areas
and we've got some people that want to spend some money.
And these people that have been going out,
we didn't have an early evening economy at all.
And we're not part of that.
And we know that we're not a part of that.
And we don't want to be a part of that.
We're happy with our nine to four and be a part of the day
and the brunch and the breakfast thing.
The worst person in our family.
But we didn't have this evening thing.
And all the...
Whereas all this evening trade being, it's been like,
all the bars are fucked.
I've gone to Wakefield.
I've gone to Sheffield.
I've gone to Leeds.
And that's where they've done their evening thing.
Now all of a sudden we've got an evening economy.
And all the bars are booming from that evening economy
because you go and have your meal at six o'clock
and you have a few pint thingy, you know, you get on your way and stuff.
And that's why I think it's been really good for the Balmsley
in terms of like creating a new,
like a pocket of things that they've had,
which they've never had before.
And then equally, if that, if you come and we're made
and you've had a really nice time,
that mate then is bringing their family back
because they're coming for brunch
and then they're going to have a little walk around the new shops
and, you know, seeing all the entertainment elements
and bits and pieces of the road.
No, it's fair.
I mean, I think Wakefield over index is on.
But not restaurants to a degree.
But then, yeah, daytime, you know,
much of the only game is that's where
this variation is all cost.
Isn't that really good?
I mean, craft's pretty good.
Whereas I think here, you go and craft for a coffee, mate.
Right.
Right, so here you are.
Well, and that's back to where we first started.
That's what we wanted to be.
But we soon realised that, you know,
we need to sell a lot of coffee and a lot of cakes
to even survive and appear there anyway.
And so that's why we put into like little things,
like little sandwiches and stuff.
And then I went to like a product development
did into the marriage and then that's when I like.
I came back and I'm like, Andrew, this is brilliant.
Thank you.
Well, but what I'm just like, let me think about it.
And I'm like, it's too late, mate.
I've ordered it.
It's coming to limit three days later.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
This palette emerged in the middle of the kitchen.
I'm like, what the hell are you doing?
And then we put it into the kitchen
and the chef wouldn't use it.
We didn't have proper chefs, though.
We had people that could cook.
They're like, oh, no, I'm scared of you.
I'm like, it's a grandeur, you're getting used.
Well, I love it.
I love it.
I do love how you put your body.
You really inspire me.
You don't have to go after me.
Andrew, please.
You need a self ordering kiosk.
Like he's got over at the town hall now.
Ice.
Why?
Hey.
So I love technology.
I do.
But what I do, so HR, let's swap that out, IT department,
because it's me that has to do it then do it.
Like something like that.
Yeah, but anything in the suburb.
No, I haven't been to interviews this time.
Yeah.
It's good.
Do you know the only thing I think about the whole,
like, we look at our journey?
Do you know when you first start,
we were fraudsters in the industry.
Yeah.
And I still feel like we're a little bit of an element
of being a fraudster as well.
But I think that's why you've got yourself,
because I feel the same.
Because my background is on the test score, not the check.
Yeah.
And I have a straddle.
Bullshit, why are you through something?
We're a big group, to be honest.
You're right.
But then that keeps me pushing.
But you know when we first started,
we knew what we liked,
in terms of coffee wise and bits and pieces.
So we approached them, people that we liked.
They wouldn't have not to do we have.
Yeah.
But I mean, yeah.
They would like, oh yeah.
But in a way, I'm packed here often.
I'm pleased that they did.
Because I don't think we would have done what we've done.
Yeah.
If they would have taken us on.
I think we would have then just been another coasted and finished.
Yeah.
But don't you actually, I've got this answer before I bought coffee.
That's really big time for me, good job.
A little bit of a Q and maybe,
which is a get a few up in the morning.
Yeah.
And I didn't go, but then I think the same.
And some spies, you know,
it's up to the government to see all that.
But you know, I just heard about,
like kind of, you know, you were selling to Tescos
and to big cities and pieces, not to chefs.
Yeah.
But do you not feel that you're only selling what you believe in anyway?
Yeah.
So if you believe in what you're selling,
and we do, that makes your job.
Yeah.
Getting a hundred percent easier.
Yeah.
I never thought that this woman,
this woman would do a buck, come on again.
And I'll be worth a ten.
But it's not a problem.
I'll win in no one.
I'll be the people.
But if you put it,
my heart hurts.
It's not a problem.
No.
Yeah.
And I do that a million times.
Yeah.
But then I believe in this, you know,
I don't let you guys down.
Yeah.
You know, but then where I got to now is,
I only want to work.
And so we get,
we bring to my mind, like,
one of my cousins and I'm sitting with Broke just,
when I see him,
we had an issue with one of our other cousins,
who used to work for me, like,
what?
And he's like,
I don't know,
I'm like,
yeah,
fuck,
I don't think.
No chance.
He's all to my heart.
So that's where I think,
I think your time has been to her,
I've been in it,
but I feel like a lot of blessedness come out.
Because I know you guys,
generally as you guys,
we know what you like.
And we can talk.
When we look at the range,
we can shop for you to bring it to the market.
And I do this.
Like, I'm like,
Michael Crane.
And that's how we,
China goes,
which is more personalized service.
But you guys are the same business.
Now you're not.
Yeah, we do,
but equally,
we do always stay away from,
like,
maybe what Mary likes.
We're trying,
we've always been asked for,
like,
look,
can I have a jacket potato?
Look,
look,
we're going to do a jacket potato.
And you can almost see him come in.
And that's no disrespect.
The jacket potatoes for the year.
Yeah.
They,
and it's like,
no, we're not.
Do you have a jacket?
That's not even that.
No.
That's not even that.
So what's next?
And see,
I have to get around to this.
So no, you're going to be a holiday.
It's fine.
I'm going to give you a great news.
We're approaching two different things,
aren't we?
We're looking at,
and we're currently developing,
like, a franchise
side of our own.
Our own.
And how we can help us
pull people with a franchise.
But I think that we are realising
that we can't literally be working
kind of 40 hour a week in three sites.
That's the challenge.
But that's the challenge.
It's your thing.
And to me,
you've got more than me
where you want that quality.
And so,
of course,
at the beginning,
it's hard to do that.
It's,
no matter how good the people are,
we bring them home.
Okay.
It's beautiful.
Well,
well, that's exactly it.
Yeah.
But we,
we are now at a situation
where we want to do what we enjoy to do.
And we enjoy the setting up.
We enjoy the training.
We enjoy the interactions.
We enjoy the customers.
Yeah.
So that's kind of what we want to do.
So hopefully the franchise side of it
enables us to do that
and enables us to,
like, maybe we have full-time jobs doing
like franchising,
just walking around
and doing them kind of bits and pieces.
But we'll never stop us from jumping in.
And yeah.
No, no.
Because we love that as well.
And we would never see people struggling.
And then the other side of it
is we want to develop
like an express side of us.
Okay.
Things like grab and go,
you know,
coffee grab and go
in like high football areas.
What we've seen
developing just in between
the Huddist Field and Wakefield,
compared to Harvey's in Huddist Field,
like a fancy bar restaurant.
I've heard of it.
Yeah.
Today, the attempts I thought was going to be started
to put extract,
to turn Harvey's fasties.
Is it that one where like it's,
where the industrial state?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And then it's the Spanish.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I thought it was quite interesting.
So now we're looking at the sign
because it only had the S at the end of like,
is it Dennis?
I don't know if it's Dennis.
When is it?
Almost at that level,
half or one day.
Yes.
And then we were testing the electric
and it came all through the bin
and I was like,
oh, it's not.
Yeah, I thought I was gone.
That might be quite interesting to do that.
We wanted a drive-through.
Yeah.
The drive-through was a really hard to come by
right in terms of ramp eyes.
Oh, what do you mean?
What do you mean?
Parts.
Yeah.
Dennis.
But it's like the setup of it as well,
you know, like the space that you've got
to have around it is still.
Again, because we don't want debt.
Yeah.
It's easy to go and get in debt
and get in the place where you want,
but that's fine.
But then we just like,
we'll be scared with a
half a million quid debt
or whatever you might have to open this
for site up.
Once trying with self-sufficient do-over.
But the express side of it,
I think is interesting and really excited.
Yeah.
And we're currently tendering to some sites.
Nice.
And menu Y, what's next with the menu?
You've got to change that.
We're working on it at the minute.
Yeah.
We're working on it at the minute.
I mean, what we found that last menu change
has done really well.
And we've gone back.
At one point, we were in a position
where kind of the stuff that we'd got
and maybe like the inspiration that we got.
Yeah.
But I think we've come back a little bit
a couple of steps back
because I think years ago,
we used to try to be something for everybody site.
And now we're realizing that we don't necessarily want
to be something to everybody.
This is what we offer.
We understand that sometimes
that won't be for everybody.
But that's us.
And we want to stick to our core values.
So our core values are going to be around breakfast
around brunch and that's it.
Yeah.
If you want a meeting to a place,
we ain't free and if you want something
that's like a traditional,
I'm going to bring the nannan to probably not for you as well.
I think your nannan would enjoy it.
But maybe not something that she's.
But I think it's what best thing to describe you
of is that Ben is for Will's.
Do you have like Instagramable?
But then your menu has some stapled on it.
Like it's like stuff like that.
These things are all grade for Instagram.
But then yeah, like special, I think,
you know, I think my mom wouldn't try that.
And you'd say it's like a salad based dish.
So you know, I'm just element to say people,
then you'll just have to put a little.
So we want to stick with as much kind of
produced ourselves.
Yeah.
Fresh, flavorful flavor is the main part.
Blonde.
But then you know,
we deal with, you know,
we do stuff with the film captain.
But for people we speak to,
Mr. Sting guy, the road deck guy,
and so that's the exact same.
You know, again, talking about the air,
and I think there's a massive difference
between people who just want to serve,
people who obviously don't play.
And there was gas when everything,
that mattered.
Whatever you're setting, whatever you put.
So you guys do.
It's something about your team anyway.
But again, as a fellow business owner,
you don't always see the positives.
You kind of focus on the negatives.
I was trying to fix those,
which is not a bad thing.
But sometimes, you know, I'm guilty of it.
We don't celebrate the successes like we should.
Absolutely.
It's like,
exactly if I pass on the back.
Well, you're interesting.
Yeah.
Like, say for just three,
one to sat,
at the end of Saturday,
I'm like, oh, it's been like,
not even looking at the figures or anything,
just looking at we have a queue system,
something, oh, there's only had 10 people queuing today.
That must mean it's a shit day.
Like, well, then we look at the figures and think,
oh, no, it's been one of a really good Saturdays.
And then you look at like back and like think,
well, why have we only had 10 people queuing then?
We've only had 10 people queuing
because we've had a really strong team on that day.
Like the kitchen's been flying, screening,
staying in green all day, you know,
the food out in 10 minutes.
So we've been able to turn the tables around as fast as we can,
where we struggle sometimes because we're only small venue.
If like, you have a slight problem upstairs,
like you were poaching eggs wrong or something,
we're going wrong with poached eggs,
so you took over that.
And like,
the water wasn't up to temperature.
It's simple, but they're not going to work.
Yeah.
Some tickets then started slipping to like 30 minutes
and it ultimately has a knock on effect.
Not just on that person's that there or whatever,
but me being able to seat them next to people,
because it's not, this sounds really awful,
but like it's not, you sat here and enjoying your meal or whatever,
I mean, to turn this table five times,
to be able to survive, you know, like a daily basis.
And then, yeah, it's all that kind of thing.
But you get back to that service,
but was it like from here for brunch?
I really wouldn't be able to ask, you know,
you don't want to have coffee, you don't want to have food,
you don't want to have children.
You don't want to be able to speak to others.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don't you think people within the hours,
within the hour, you know, that's,
we need you to throw about two coffees,
and your food, and your cake, and then take a takeout.
Oh, I'm going to take a look.
But I thought, but I think it's again,
it's testament to how you're, you've implemented technology,
your business, and how you understand your business,
understand your numbers.
You know, there's a lot of business out there,
don't like the guy who bought our business,
he's not bullshit, like we know that,
definitely not what you're paying for,
and whether we're making money today or not, you know.
I don't think we're quite there yet.
We're not there.
Have you ever bought this, actually?
Yeah, no, we're not.
Loads of nice things to look at and stuff.
A load of statistics and bits and pieces,
but that's not what we enjoy about business.
No.
So we only do the minimum amount that we need to do,
and that's wrong, we know that that's wrong.
But we have got a couple of people that are on the team now
that are a little bit more kind of focused.
Rebecca is really kind of,
she loves statistics.
Yes, she does.
She loves to come to the end of the week
and have her one-to-one with Gareth,
and actually did that.
I've done my spreadsheet,
and what do you call it?
It's not an API, what is it?
KPI, something.
And she loves going through that,
and she's like, here, this is this,
and I think we need to do this,
and this is what it's costing us today.
Great.
But it's awesome, of course,
doing this, I used to go to Miss Gareth
with a good phrase,
because like, no, I don't play drums with that.
And it's right, you need people to do different things,
you know, and I brought down,
and she did that,
but not like, where?
I just put my shit, I think,
it's a lot of time.
Well, she's big easy,
and I think PC's are way through,
and I have to be fair,
to get them to do the right thing.
But yes, in the finance,
but again, it's just that,
I think what I've learned in the last two years specifically
is more that, yeah, Tim Hunter,
near so, both of my skills,
both of that, and bringing it to the right people.
But, like me, I can't do the cooking,
I can't do the brisk to station,
but I feel like I can watch the parks,
I can be, I can agree,
I can clear tables,
so I just want to do stuff that I enjoy to do,
because if I was to go in the kitchen,
I have done,
we're going in the kitchen on the short days or whatever,
the moment it pings through,
I get stressed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then another ping,
and I know that business needs the pings,
to obviously the orders coming through,
but I'm then stressing to myself,
and we've got an order, and I'm like,
it's not wrong.
Yeah, it does, though, you're just going to say that.
And then you've been forcing, like, me, I mean,
I'm Neil, be, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, I've asked the estimate,
and you've got, I know,
I think we've built,
if you've seen a lot of change,
you're right.
I think Neil, Neil's,
Neil's on the mind now,
where it's like, kind of,
whatever the business needs.
Yeah.
But I think that's because of the relationship
that we've actually got.
Neil's a great guy.
He really is.
He's the type of person that you really want on your team.
Yeah, really.
And we've got lots of overnighters.
We have.
Very fortunate.
We've got some younger staff
that are taking a little bit more of a lead,
that have got so much potential
that they absolutely cannot see,
and we're working with a lady called Lisa,
and she's trying to do some, like,
one-to-one coaching with them,
to try and bring on that confidence,
and kind of understanding that,
actually, if you are confident in yourself,
that doesn't mean you're overconfident,
but then you can achieve.
About, like, the positive element
and positive thinking.
Yeah.
Because not just younger generations,
but you can all get hit down
and we're trying to count your,
in terms of thinking that, you know,
like, shit, you know,
that's wrong, that's wrong,
it's raining and all this, like,
where Lisa's, like, done some coaching with us,
where we were very lucky
that Barnes Council funded the coaching.
And it's all about thinking about above the line,
and, you know, like,
what have we got to be grateful for today,
you know, what positives have we had today,
and if we focus on them,
rather than the negatives, the negatives,
don't disappear,
and become less significant
as what they once was.
Yeah, no, it's really just that,
one area we fail is the end of our training,
because, actually, we're so small,
trying to do things,
actually, we've sort of changed that.
So, it's like, we're trying to pay people more
than anything about more responsibility,
and you can't be bossing killers,
and that's it,
happening, things like that.
And that will go from about a 14,
and I get to four on that.
But, yeah, again, the training,
so back with the people.
Back to the things.
Yeah, we'd love to do more on that,
on that kind of positive outlook,
because I know, like, myself,
how much of a difference that can make,
because I know that if I'm mourning about something,
or I have a negative on something,
I'm just, I end up here,
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And actually,
to try and look at that positive spin on things.
So, you know, we all get there,
and he'll do it with me,
and I'll do it with him.
So, you know, like,
when the back says things,
I'm like, I haven't seen that in too long.
I can feel I've got it back.
No, we're walking,
and I'm walking Yorke or something,
and I got sketched out the car,
and I'm like, oh, my feet are killing.
And he's like, hmm,
how could you put that into positive?
I was like, at least I've got feet.
But then, that invoked a lot of response,
and that picks you up, it gives you a lot of response.
Absolutely, absolutely.
But it's easy to get down.
Like, depending on that,
I think the problem comes,
because we've got footages before coach,
here, an hour's,
and then it's easy,
it's an easy thing to do,
we say here,
it's a job, I've had it for six months now.
But then, the last six months,
I've kind of been made a problem.
Well, okay, it'll be right.
Let's move forward.
So, you can't worry about that,
I'll go for it.
And that, I think that's helped a lot of relationship
that I have with well,
and a lot of that,
rather than just be,
it makes it easier.
Especially, I don't think you could have said it
sometimes, I feel,
oh, I've got to change your feet,
it's been a lot of my friends,
it's quite a lot of my business,
but I can feel quite a lot of need at times.
You're not careful.
You can see, there's like stuff
that I protect Andrew from,
because I don't want Andrew to be worrying about it.
Yeah.
Because, you know, like, I just feel,
oh yeah.
I can't be said, Gareth, from anything,
because as soon as they see me,
I'm probably like, what's that?
What's that?
I need to know.
Tell me now.
No, no.
No.
But there'll be elements like,
you know, like,
if we're both taking a role now,
where we're both more,
I'm from a voucher or back of ours,
and if, like, I'm sure there's stuff that you deal with,
that I don't need to know about,
and you don't tell me,
and an equal area of this stuff that I deal with,
I don't then share with Andrew.
But I more do, like, financial side of the business,
as well,
and you don't really have anything to do with that.
And so I'm only like,
another batch,
do you need two weeks time or whatever,
and you're thinking,
oh, go where am I going to pull that from?
Yeah.
So they're as stressed as I have,
but I wouldn't share with Andrew.
Oh, so me and Gareth, we've just shared quite a lot,
but I think we can't hope the years figure out
where I still say.
Yes.
But, but then the problem is,
things on the backs, we're...
And I'd be happy talking to my brother.
I don't know.
You know, no.
Maybe you're going,
I'm going, oh Jesus Christ, don't need to laugh.
Oh, no, I'm coming home all the time,
and I'm packing it in,
and we're running away.
Yeah.
You know, but yeah, most of the time,
none of the time it's happened.
Yeah.
But again, I think that's because
if you go back to these people that are going into business,
if you're not willing to change,
if you're not religious, terrorist,
you're not willing to do all the things,
they're the people that want to buy from you.
They're people that, when you get your first fact,
they'll win you get your first whatever bill
that you weren't expecting.
I'm done.
They're the people that...
I can't do this.
Yeah.
There's no way out of this.
So, so...
I think it's up to me, I'll look at some people.
I've seen a lot of my people,
start looking at things,
and I'm my own place.
My parents are always up there,
my grandad always up there,
I'm an arrow.
So to me, it was normal,
like to come in, kind of,
and play a role.
To you, it's been completely different.
I've always worked for,
I'm sort of my parents.
So when we were talking about opening this,
my mum would have like,
oh no, oh no, you can't wipe this,
wipe that, wipe the other.
I mean, they're so proud of the deal.
You know,
if you put a handkerchief,
you must have skills there.
For that, I would never go back.
It doesn't work out,
it does.
It did, it was reassuring.
And I'm still in contact
with my previous players,
and very, very good friends,
so I'm loving to bits, loving Deale.
They're just like family,
and they've always said,
and still would,
you don't need to worry,
you've always got a friend to play.
It's a nine for ten,
so you're never ahead.
Yeah, but at that time,
you'll have me through the...
Well, we've both had transferable skills as well,
I think,
absolutely.
I think that was an important thing,
getting yourself...
Well, like, kind of the teaching and stuff,
that we've both kind of got elements on,
that's helped us deliver certain things,
I think, well.
And then the customer kind of facing,
you know, you were in training
within the NHS,
so he's got a customer, effectively.
So he was able to kind of communicate with them,
likewise, in hairdressing,
very custom focused,
very one-on-one.
That was allowing us to kind of have
that personable approach to people,
that I think people wanted as well.
I think whatever I'm going to know,
well,
I've got a little chance.
Well, okay, well, it's a sub-riding, guys.
So, future replacements for new tax?
Yep.
Do you many bar launch, innit, Lee?
Well, we would...
We like to turn it around relatively quickly,
but we are now in a process where,
I think, within four weeks.
Within four weeks.
So, too.
Yeah, and you think,
from dark, you think, to a time?
Um...
I think you have a progress, I think.
Yeah.
That's cool, though.
So, if you can find you Instagram, TikTok...
No, no.
We do want to keep going,
but we do like to look at it,
but we don't really understand it.
So, they're far away.
That's great.
Yeah.
It's good.
Yeah.
But yeah, so Instagram, Facebook.
Yep.
And website,
you can run online.
Yep.
So, do the brand boxes.
Yeah.
Yeah, everything from down here,
to check out Facebook,
to also meet you, too, with people.
They're looking at...
We'll look at it a bit.
So, you are my favourite people.
I'm sure.
We'll work together.
Well, yeah.
Thank you very much for today.
Thank you.
Close down the family.
And...
Yeah.
Thank you for coming, guys.
Thank you.
No, just...
Again, thank you to all of you,
particularly yourself and Jennifer.
You continue the spot.
Cheers, guys.
MUSIC
Thank you for joining some of the Chef Life podcast.
I've been your host, Alastair.
If you'd like to learn more about our business,
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Thanks.