Mock Turtle, Leamington Spa

Once upon a time, the Jabberwocky set out to open a restaurant and serve you food at the cosy table by the window. That was June 2011, which is a long time ago now. This week, from Thursday, the Mock Turtle will have windows to sit by and food to serve at them. Not quite in the way I imagined, but in a good way nonetheless.

For those of you who have so far managed to avoid the twitter feed, the facebook page and the website, and have no idea what I’m talking about, here is the short version:

The Mock Turtle, Leamington Spa

Our first restaurant, opens this Thursday at Queensway Court in Leamington Spa. We will have toasties, we will have Barny doing the cooking and we will have cake. Really, really good cake. 

The restaurant will be full of food from breakfast at 8:30 till 2:30. The cafe will carry on till 4:30pm with proper coffee, cake and toasties.

Your day sorted. Breakfast bap on a locally baked roll with free range egg and bacon.

Lunch: Asparagus, broad bean and pea risotto with red pepper oil.

Finish with brownie by the Cake Doctor.

So at the moment we are trying to anticipate all the mistakes that will happen over that first weekend. Easter weekend is traditionally a pretty big pub lunch type of celebration, and we will be fielding a strong line-up of roast dinners and supporting classics to the public. Behind the scenes I am confidently anticipating chaos, panic, lost tempers and tears. In the first hour. Just from me.

Luckily this is perfectly natural. I’ve opened a restaurant before; not from the financial end but as an employee, and watched as it slid painfully out of existence a month later. The trick, I learnt at the time, was to tell people about it, rather than expecting Leamington Spa to Just Know. This is partly why I’m talking about it, again. Having organised events for Scoff I’ve realised how much work you have to put into getting a few people to turn up once, let alone getting many people to turn up every single day. This time it’s personal, and I’m going for the overkill.

We are currently putting in days that make those lazy winter mornings watching Homes Under The Hammer with breakfast seem like a distant memory. The Beast has hunkered down in the driveway, ready for a few weeks of quiet contemplation while we figure out the Mock Turtle. We are poised, like a ski jumper (sports-person, not knitwear), ready to push off.

I’ll stop there. You get my general gist. I would be able to waffle on for hours, but that’s mostly  going to be nerves. If I could just extend you a very hearty invitation to come down and see us any time after Thursday morning, 8:30 am. That would be wonderful.