Part 4. Roll with It.
Bric a Bracking, an encounter with The Godfather and a recipe using microwaved spuds.
Let’s continue the story. So, as you know the commercial estate agent is telling us that we have to hand over five thousand quid as a holding deposit, otherwise the premises will stay on the market and somebody else will snap it up. The agents warning of, “this is York you know” ringing in our ears. In hindsight, we realise that they always say that. But this was twenty years ago, and five thousand pound was a lot of money to find, still is.
The weird thing is, this all happened very quickly, it started with a four minute nosey around an internet cafe and less than a week later, we’re looking down the back of the sofa to see if we can scrabble five grand together.
Well, we obviously found the cash otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, but how?
OK, some of you may remember something called a TV magazine, they might even still be around, you bought them for about ten bob and it was basically a listing of everything that was on the telly for the week. How daft does that seem, there was only five channels. Well, in these little magazines there were loads of adverts, mainly for things you definitely didn’t need. For example, a set of four plates with pictures of horses on them, which you hung on the wall, just so you don’t forget what horses look like. One boot, a kind of boot slipper which was one piece so you could sit and watch TV and keep both of your feet in at the same time. Then forget you’re using it, stand up, and crash, face first onto the floor. So yea, stuff you don’t need, but good for poking fun at. But, usually on the back page, there was often adverts for loans, loans with pretty high interest rates, but the adverts were shiny and fun to obviously help distract from the high interest rates.
Now, I had just left my job at the college but Donna was still working, so she could easily get the loan, then we could hand it over to the commercial estate agent and secure the premises. Then we could pay it back when we get the big loan from the cuddly helpful bank, therefore sidestepping the large interest rate. So Donna applied, via a phone call, but first of all, double double checking that we could pay it off before the term end, without penalties. They seemed confused at this question, “like, you’re asking for a loan and also asking now, how to pay it back?”.
That was it, five k was in our bank account a couple of days later, then we wrote out a cheque (yes, seems like a strange thing to do now) and drove to York to hand it over to the agent. We like to think the agent doubted us and didn’t think we had the cash, and that they were stunned when they realised we did, but we were smug because we did it. The agent probably didn’t think this at all, who knows!
Now it’s all going so well, we were buying the leasehold of the internet cafe and the rent of £20k a year was manageable. The purchase price for the lease was also £20k, that seems very cheap now, it would be around four times that today.
So now we needed to have an idea of costings to fit it out so that we knew how much to ask the bank for. I had experience of buying crockery etc, and we knew we wanted plain white, no Ikea stuff though, thanks, so that would keep the cost down. Kitchen equipment was generally sorted, most would come from Collander, yes that was still rumbling away. But the big outlay was tables, chairs and decor. We definitely didn’t want to follow the crowd, which at the time was those high backed black or cream leather chairs, and tables with gleaming chrome legs. And it was strange because once one restaurant used them, they all did. It became a chain of independent restaurants. Plus, they were expensive.
No, we had a better idea. We liked old stuff, our house was full of rickety oak wardrobes, antique cut edge mirrors and dusty Hornsea pots of various shapes and sizes. This was Donna’s hobby I suppose, collecting bits of old gear with character from car boot sales and junk shops. I called it Bric a Bracking and there was a Bric a Bracking song as well that I would sing to her. She loved it!
Well, we thought, why don’t we do that for the restaurant, we could visit auction houses and car boot sales to collect furniture. We could buy tables with barley twist legs, chairs made of oak with old fabric seat pads, square tables with legs as thick as Mike Tyson’s. This would be pretty cost effective (cheap) compared to going to a specialist supplier. But oh hang on, nothing would match, wouldn't that look a bit odd? No, that could actually be part of the charm, we could make a point of it being mis matched. Now look at that, we had started the Shoreditch look way before we knew where Shoreditch was.
So we cobbled together a rough calculation of how much we needed, adding in lots of guess work for decorating, insurance, legal fees and stock, to name but a few things. Then we would just pop down to Stockton High Street and ask the bank for some money. The amount was forty thousand little pounds.
I think some people call this a business plan.
We made an appointment at the bank and got our story together, we had some equity in our house so we just needed to borrow £40k from that, this would mean our mortgage payments would go up, but not by much. Easy. At the bank we were shown to one of those little side rooms they have, the ones that make you feel important when you walk over to them.
We explained to the very nice lady that we needed forty thousand pounds to open a vegetarian restaurant in York and could we please have this added to our mortgage and we would pay it back monthly. There we go, easy.
It was not easy! The answer was not what we expected, “I’m sorry, you’re actually asking for a business loan, so we would need to see cash flow forecasts and a business plan for a business loan. Plus, you would need to put in twenty five percent deposit yourself”. So that’s it, we couldn’t go ahead, just like that, the project stopped. Game over!
For a moment no more words were used, I was thinking, we’ve put five grand deposit down, we’ve made an offer on the internet cafe, what would we tell the agent, we’ve decided on the tables and chairs, we could see the restaurant in our minds, and I knew Donna was sat next to me thinking the same. I knew that because she was also staring blankly at the bank lady. I think our response in unison was something like “oh”.
But sometimes in life, something amazing happens, something you couldn’t have even thought of comes from out of nowhere. Something that changes your direction, and life completely. And it was this.
The nice bank lady leaned forward, and in the style of Marlon Brando in The Godfather, she said softly, “however, if you make another appointment to see me, and tell me you want the money to build an extension on your house, then that’s not a problem”. And again our response was, “oh”.
So, we were a bit numb and confused, in the last five minutes we were going to have our own restaurant, then we weren’t, and then we were. Then, in a slight zombied state, we wondered back through the bank, made an appointment on the way out for a few days time, then back onto Stockton High Street we were. We were happy, if a little confused.
Basically, nice bank lady was being very professional and telling us that if we needed to get our mits on the money we had to go through the proper channels, but in the next sentence, she was The Godfather, and telling us to make up a house extension story.
So we did exactly that. We went back a couple of days later, sat in the same room, with the same nice bank lady, but she acted as if she had never met us before. So we asked for £40k to build a nice kitchen and conservatory on our house so that it looked like every other house in the area. Nice bank lady told us that wouldn’t be a problem and that the dosh would be in our account within a few days. And in a couple of days, it was in the bank. Thank you so much Nice Bank Lady.
It’s difficult to explain how quickly this all happened, it was a matter of weeks. To give you an idea of the feeling, it’s as follows. You know those spin bikes, you start peddling them and within about thirty seconds, because of the way they're set up, you find that the the pedals are peddling you, and you can't stop. It was kinda bit like that, we were speeding along, but still not sure where and what was happening.
Onto the foodie bit kids. Donna and I like that Spanish breakfast of the toasted bread thing with the tomato and olive oil. I tried to replicate the tomato element a few times. Tried blending the tomatoes, tried finely chopping them, but couldn’t get the same result. Then one night we were watching the amazing and truly wonderful, James Martin, he was doing a cookery trip around Spain. He did this tomatoey trick which you can read below. But I have adapted it into a version of patatas bravas, but certainly not as you know it. So read on…….
Quick note, you will be microwaving spuds. This is because it results in a drier potato flesh, which means you can add the oil without it going sloppy. Try the method next time you're doing mashed potatoes instead of boiling or steaming them. You get a fuller flavour because water isn’t involved.
This is about one portion, depending on your hunger level. Up the amounts accordingly.
Ingredients
2 medium sized spuds, any type.
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or grated on your microplane.
3tbsp olive oil.
1medium tomato
1tsp drained capers
1tbsp green olives, roughly chopped
Salt and olive oil.
Method
-Stab the spuds a few times with a fork. Pop on a microwaveable plate and cook on full power for 8-10 minutes, until cooked, turning once. Time depends on the spuds and the microwave.
-Meanwhile, add the 3tbsp olive oil to a saucepan, than add garlic and cook on a low heat to soften. Don’t let it brown. When done, stick to one side.
-When the spuds are cooked allow to cool a little but peel while still warm. Don't burn yourself. Add the spud flesh to the pan with the garlic and oil.
-Keep the peelings.
-Mash the potatoes with a masher or fork, season with salt.
-Now shape the potato in your hands (wear gloves if you want) until they are the size of a ping pong ball, roughly. Then flatten slightly and stick them on a plate and pop in the fridge. Don’t wash the pan.
-Next, cut the tomato in half, then stick a box grater in a bowl and rub the tomato, flesh side, against the grater, right down to the skin. No fingers.
-Tip, drop a couple of sheets of kitchen roll on the tomato pulp to soak up some liquid.
-Then add the capers, olives, some salt and a little olive oil, that’s done.
-Wipe the potato pan with a cloth, heat a little oil and fry the skins for about 5-8 minutes until crispy. Season with salt.
-Now, fry the garlicky potato cakes until golden on both sides, then pop on a plate and serve with the sauce and crispy skins.
-Eat it.
Read on………
So anyway, back to the story, the property is off the market, the money for the house extension is in our bank account and we had a rough plan of how the restaurant would look and the feel. Between us we had a vision, and we just wanted to change the image of vegetarian restaurants in the UK. We had a point to prove!
Join us on Part 5 as we go hunting for dusty furniture, sort solicitors, think what the hell are we doing and count cutlery.
I love the idea of the mismatched furniture. Always a talking point. Less sterile too
I have NEVER understood the one boot thing. Seriously, thanks for talking us through how Vanilla Black started. Perhaps Nice Bank Lady was one of us, a vegetarian sick of having no good food!