There are small stacks which have made their mark with incredible food and dining in their limited dingy spaces. Guardian’s food columnist Sue Webster discovers ‘Three small restaurants with a big heart’ in the UK that reveal the success, a cosmopolitan restaurateur might not think of in an unattractive dining set-up. The three restaurants and their brief success stories are as follows:
1. Braidwoods, Drumastle Mill Cottage, Dalry, Ayrshire – Owned by Keith and Nicola Braidwood this restaurant speaks of the success of simple dishes cooked with just the right ingredients. Keith and Nicola knew what they are cooking and how they are serving the dishes. The restaurant still stands in the not so oft trudged track ironically streamed with consumers eating their plate of Dug’s confit duck leg with red cabbage and shallots in a tarragon jus. It was recently bestowed by the Michelin Stars not by the virtue of exotic furniture but by the virtue of what it served.
2. The Shed, Porthgain, Pembrokeshire – It is a small bistro with borrowed tables, chairs, teapots and saucepans. However, the publicity was not borrowed; it was a direct word of mouth invitation to taste one of the best specialty seafood in the UK. Now the bistro has an extended space to serve a pint of beer with a ‘Pub License’.
3. Apicius, 23 Stone Street, Cranbrook, Kent – Tim Johnson, chef-proprietor of Apicius and the author from the only cookbook from ancient Rome wanted to prove the restaurant success running it out of London. Was it successful? With the French and Italian discipline in the restaurant, there can be no doubts about it. The cozy little space with seven tables did not work with French discipline alone but also by marketing skills.
You know what happens when you rename a chicken soup as French herbal broth. The creative combos of dishes procured from local market and served at reasonable prices can give you the in-between lessons of making the dishes run anywhere.
There is no proven theory to run restaurants and these small restaurants have gone a far way in establishing this as a fact. The only principle is to know what you cook and serve for your consumers.
Via: Guardian
