Of all the cool, hip and sophisticated places that street food is often found: from the weirdly trendy car parks in Birmingham to the glossy shopping malls of Leeds, there is one place where, I confess, I never though I’d find it. The City of Coventry, not 15 minutes from Leamington Spa, has never once provided us with a place to trade. It has a few big events each year, notably the Godiva Festival, but we have never had a chance to get our toast on.
Until now.
Coventry is a young city. It’s full of young businesses, young industry and a huge student population. While it may not be choked to the gills with disposable income, it has its moments, and in those moments everyone ups sticks and goes out for a nice meal in Warwick or Leamington. Just recently though, a few people who don’t want this to be the way of things started Fargo – an independent shopping, art and creative village just outside the city centre on Far Gosford Street (d’you see what they did there?). Straight-talking goods and arts sold by the people who make them. Several beards that sing “hipster” in the dramatic style. Industrial, off the beaten track and utterly perfect for street food.
Enter Scoff, our street food collective. Now a whole Summer older, very slightly wiser and sporting a whole page of members, we are ready for anything. Fargo have offered us a home, so Fargo Village Street Food is now Scoff: where we can put a whole pile of exciting street food folks into this very lovely venue so that everyone can make a living.
This is where we need your help. Firstly, we need you to challenge what you know about Coventry. You probably had the same reaction as me when you first heard it: “really? Coventry?”. And then a few minutes later: “Coventry? You sure?” but here’s the lovely thing: No one is doing this in Cov at the moment. When Fargo opened they were hoping for 3000 people over the launch weekend. 10,000 turned up. The City is crying out for somewhere inspiring to eat, drink and be happy, and we have got the Eat/Happy covered.
Secondly, if you are anywhere in the area, you will want to see this place. It’s bohemian, its inspiring (especially if you are on the verge of setting up shop somewhere) and it’s got some extremely solid lunchtime offerings. You might even be tempted to have a wonder into the heart of Coventry and see the old town centre around the cathedral afterwards. It’s really nice, I promise.
Thirdly, if you have any of the social medias, then we would be ridiculously obliged if you could do retweets or shares or some such things. You can find Scoff street food there every weekend, 11-4:30, and we will be showing up with toasties for the first time on the 22nd November.
Parking and finding the place are both an art form in themselves, as the City Council has taken it upon themselves to replace every road in Coventry simultaneously, but those of you who find a way are in for a treat. The knack is to follow signs to the parking, ditch the car and then find Far Gosford Street and look for the robot. So sharpen your spoons, dinner is coming.
Sounds like the kind of thing Coventry has needed for a while. Great work with Scoff, and if we’re ever in the area then we’ll pop in 🙂