Part 3. In The City.

Searching for a restaurant premises which the headmistress reckoned didn't exist. And a recipe for turning pastry into Paratha.

The story continues. We would start looking for a restaurant which we could call our own. Dead easy! It was early in 2004 and we were still plodding on through our day jobs, so we would have to juggle our time. Not so easy.

But first of all we needed to decide on a location. Yes, we could open a vegetarian restaurant in our home town of Stockton on Tees, but the fear of being petrol bombed put us off. And financially, we couldn’t see it working.

Instead we shortlisted three areas, Bath, the Lake District and York. The reasons for these choices were based on, not much to be honest.

We loved Bath, it’s a beautiful city, so a pretty solid reason to open a restaurant there. Plus, Bath is posh, and everyone who lives there is a millionaire. We quickly went off the idea when we remembered that the last drive there lasted six or seven, long draining hours. It was quickly crossed off the list!

We liked the Lake District, it’s a beautiful area, so a pretty solid reason to open a restaurant there. Plus, everyone who goes rambling loves nature, so therefore they’re vegetarian, obviously. We quickly went off this idea when we remembered that on our last visit, there was nobody around because it rained so much, and even umbrellas were leaking. So, a bit on the seasonal side.

Another favourite place was York, it’s a beautiful city, so a pretty solid reason to open a restaurant there. Plus, there’s a steady stream of tourists, as well as the local population, so a decent customer base. And, it was only about an hours drive from where we lived, so until we sold our house, we could drive there fairly easily. And the other good thing is, we would be living in York, and people would say, “Oooohhhh York”.

Decision made, we decided that the first thing we should do is start looking at premises in York. We didn’t need to think about money, you just go to the bank, tell them you're opening a business, and they hand over the dosh. We’d seen it in the adverts. It’s all pretty simple and straightforward.

Now before we go on, something needs explaining, and this could be a shock and a revelation to some people. You know when you see a new restaurant open, and it’s a big flashy place in Covent Garden? And the press release is, Tarquin Harlequin Smyth opens Ethiopian tapas restaurant after being inspired by a recent safari trip. Well, we always questioned, how? How did they get the money for the deposit on the lease? How did they pay for the fit out? How did they pay for the extraction to be fitted? How did they manage to build up so much PR? Did they save the the money they made on their paper rounds when they were at school? Did they get six numbers on the lottery? Well, most of the time it came the easy way, their financial backers funded it, or their mammy and daddy did. Or, their rich Uncle Springsteen dropped a few quid their way. All this was unbeknown to us way back in 2004.

Anyway, for those of who haven’t been to York, you need to know this. There is an old Roman wall surrounding the original city, that’s the part tourists see, and therefore the busiest bit. And most of it is like stepping back in time, yes there’s M&S, Superdrug and Poundland, but there are many buildings which are hundreds of years old, and within them, businesses selling shiny sparkly goodies for passers by. Street names seem to have been written by York Tourist Information, Micklegate, Stonegate and Grape Lane. This is the area we wanted to be in, it made financial sense. We ran this decision by some friends, just to get a few outsiders thoughts. Wish we hadn’t, because one of the comments which often came up was, “Oh yea, there’s loads of students in York”. So what, why does everyone assume all students are vegetarian? What was also annoying, was that they assumed we were opening a chimichanga and quinoa joint, with beanbags flung on the floor and free yoga mats for all. Even though they knew us, they still had the vegetarian image stuck in their brains. Smashing up stereotypes was gonna be hard.

The sticky bit was finding a premises, it had to be A3 (a classification at the time which meant it could be used as a restaurant) and it had to be cheap. Even though we were only buying the lease, prices were still on the lofty side. We won’t bore you with the short list of possible suspects, but there was a carpet shop, a cafe which was on the first floor and somewhere which was so small, there would only be room for four and a half diners. York is a compact city, so there were less options on the market.

Oh yea, there was one place that looked promising, it was down a street called Goodramgate, but when we viewed it we were put off by the amount of work it needed. Plus, the agent told us that there was someone else already interested, but the landlord was a bit iffy about the proposed concept. Turns out someone had an idea to run it as a Spanish/Jamaican restaurant, a bit on the niche side. Hey, maybe it was Tarquin Harlequin Smyth.

So none of the above were any good, and pestering commercial estate agents was painful, they talked to you like you were a donkey. We asked one agent if they had anything available, and in her best impression of a creaky old headmistress she replied, “In all my time working as an estate agent I have never seen an A3 property come onto the market”. And for about six seconds after that comment we felt defeated, but then we realised how stupid that sounded. So in her head, a restaurant premises had never been sold or bought in York. Eh? The daftness of that annoyed us and it made us more determined.

As with most things in life, if you keep trying, something usually happens. Due to the internet being limited, search engines didn’t do much searching, so walking and looking was the alternative. And one day there it was, no not a restaurant, another commercial estate agent. So we contacted them and after a quick rifle through their listings we spotted an internet cafe in the chosen location. It had A3 and was a decent size, and looking at the floorplan, we knew it would easily be adapted into a restaurant space. Bingo!

So a few days later we went for a nosy around without making an appointment. It was down a little side street called Swinegate, opposite a haberdashery shop and a Chinese restaurant. The street even had cobblestones. We popped in, pretending to be customers, looking at the huge computers one by one, but really we were just trying to get a feel for the place. The sun was blaring through the windows, there was a counter halfway along the space and an office at the back. Then after that, the toilets were at the end of a corridor. We liked it, it had potential for our vision, we left and had a coffee in Pret, which was quite fancy then, and chatted about how the space would work for us. We were already making plans, you know, like you do when you see a house which grabs you.

We rang the agent and arranged an official appointment to view, a few days later. When we arrived the guy who owned it recognised us from our stealth visit, a tad embarrassing. He showed us around and explained a few things about the building, nothing scary. He ran a web development business from the office at the back and wanted to sell the lease on because he was tired of the cafe side, to be honest he didn't seem exactly the hospitality type. This was all good, the counter would be the bar, the office would be the kitchen and the toilets were hidden away at the back. We roughly worked out how many tables/covers we could fit in the dining space. It just felt like the ideal spot for our restaurant. So we almost had the plans nailed down right there and then. The rent was £20k a year, a quick calculation confirmed it was doable.

So later that day we rang the agent, full of excitement and confidence, we told them we wanted to make an offer, which we did. So far this was straight forward, a bit like buying a house, but it turns out it’s not quite the same. The agent spoke with the owner, and minutes later the deal was agreed. Now we were even more excited. But then the agent said something we didn’t expect,  “we need a holding deposit of five thousand pounds to take it off the market”.

Oh really! We hadn’t spoken to the bank yet, that was our next step. Surely funds were transferred on completion. We simply didn’t have five thousand pounds……….

Now the recipe bit, this is massive cheat, so you’ll love it. I’ll share a thought process with you which I have used for many years. I see food from a different angle, to me it’s all the same. Let me explain, a very basic pastry recipe is flour, water and fat. A very basic pasta recipe is flour, water and fat.

Yes, there will be some variations, additions etc. Different types of flour can be used and so on, but the base is flour, water and fat. So pasta and pastry are therefore, very closely related, it’s just the ratios which are different. In my opinion, once you start to think like this, it helps the mind to be more creative. This thought process became one of the tools for dish development at the restaurant over many years.

Anyway, an example. Paratha, that flaky puffy Indian bread. I have made them many times, but they’re a right faff on, although very delicious. So I got to thinking about them, my mind wandered and came to a stop when I started to see them as a laminated (cheffy term for layers) pastry. Then I crossed the thinking over to something else which is laminated, puff pastry. Surely paratha and puff pastry are just layers of dough separated by a thin layer of fat, one is baked, one is fried. Get it?

So here we go………..

Pastry Becomes Paratha

This amount makes one paratha, so increase the amounts as required.

Ingredients *for a vegan version check the pastry ingredients and only fry in oil

-½ teaspoon black onion seeds

-½ teaspoon dried, crushed chilli, or adjust to your liking

-A roll of shop bought puff pastry

-Sunflower/vegetable oil or ghee if you want to show off

Method

-Dry fry onion seeds and chilli for 20 seconds, shake them around a bit. Remove from the heat and transfer to plate.

-Wipe the pan but don’t bother washing it.

-Next the pastry. Unroll the pastry, then slice a length about 8cm wide, so you have a rectangle. Try to keep the pastry on the greaseproof paper which comes with the pastry, and cut the paper so it separates from the main roll.

-Now cut that pastry rectangle in half across, so now you have two rectangles.

-Dip your fingers in some cold water and dampen one of the pastry rectangles. Sprinkle on the spice mix fairly evenly.

-Place the other pastry rectangle on top, now carefully move this to one side of the greaseproof paper.

-Fold the paper over the little parcel and roll to flatten. Now you see why we kept the greaseproof, you don’t even need to flour the worktop.

-Continue to roll until the rectangle is about 12cm wide, it’ll start to lengthen also.

-Heat the oil or ghee in the frying pan, get it to a medium heat. Note, if it’s too hot the outside of the paratha will be burnt and the inside will be raw.

-Add the pastry, cook for one minute then turn over. Cook on the other side for one minute then turn again. Add more oil if it scorches. This turning allows time for the inside to be cooked. Adjust the heat as required.

-Continue to cook and turn. Once they are golden brown on both sides, they’re done.

-Eat them.

Now use your noggin here, if you don’t have black onion seed, try sesame seeds, or caraway seeds, or maybe some crushed coriander seeds. Or just experiment until you find your fave.

Catch up next week to find out how we loaned £5k from a TV magazine and robbed a bank.