The Wocky visited Alcester food festival last weekend, and had a lovely time. Not only were the organisers very nice, which we like, but the Alcesterians were delightful and said lots of kind things about the Jabberwocky. First compliment of the day was “I love your van”, which was then repeated over and over by a variety of people. Luckily I could never get sick of hearing it, and just got more and more happy each time.
I should add that the Beast was looking terrific that day, resplendent in green with a brand new addition: The wrought iron flower display. I had always pictured the Jabberwocky as being Victorian some how – early conceptual plans for food were based around street food from that era until we discovered it was, almost universally, oddly nasty (all the good Victorian street food has been adopted and is now colloquially known as “food”). The wrought iron always seemed to belong to the Victorian style, and the flowers were being all flowery on that otherwise rather gloomy day.
It was lovely having people nod appreciatively at the van, even when they didn’t flock to try the menu right away, and made me glad that we chose the Beast. It’s probably finally time to stop worrying about whether we made the right choice when buying the Beast in the first place. He has caused us a lot of problems, most notably by deciding not to start, although Stevo the Stilo could teach him a thing or two about that these days when I had to bump start him home earlier. The Beast has also, more annoyingly, made most festivals consider us a “large” catering pitch, even though there are only two of us.
At your average festival you will expect to be knee deep in punters, so if you can fit 10 people into your trading space you can serve 10 times faster than if you can only fit one, therefore 10 times more profit. We have a nice big van with a fairly small hatch, and can only fit two no matter how you spin it, but often have to be in with the big guns even without the profit because the van is, well, a Beast.
On the other hand, I would like to bet you a fresh batch of brownies you have never seen anything like it. It makes me wonder what the next one should look like, to which end I have been collecting some ideas. It’s fun, like picking names for your kids without the 18 year £200,000 investment. Going to Cuba made it all even more delightful, because they are all about the glorious 1950s cars (also all about kids – a whole street of traffic stopped so a child could carry on chasing a tyre down the middle of the road – it didn’t make me want one though). The hope is that one day, when the Jabberwocky has gyred and gimbled his way into the hearts of Warwickshire and we once more have money to invest, I will be here introducing you to the Bandersnatch.
Until then, I can dream.
It may not be a van, or have any of its original parts, but good god it would make an amazing Bandersnatch.
” (also all about kids – a whole street of traffic stopped so a child could carry on chasing a tyre down the middle of the road – it didn’t make me want one though).”Of course you didn’t want a tyre! You already have four! Bit cruel to take it away from that child…