It's taken me quite a while to write this post today. I have changed it many times in the past two days and today, in spite of being quite drugged up on painkillers for the blessed trapped nerve in the underside of my foot, I have decided to bite the bullet.
Over the past couple of months we have been giving our future and the future of our business a lot of thought. The current situation with rising energy costs means that disposable income is as rare as hens teeth and this has had a big effect on Hospitality and indeed we have had the worst May-July ever, in 8 years of business. This, in spite of our reputation, our awards and our reviews. It's been thoroughly depressing and there have been a lot of sleepless nights thinking of how best to steer La Petite Bouchée through these rather interesting times.
THE SERIOUSLY GOOD NEWS
On the flip side our Private Chef and Events arm is doing exceedingly well and our diary is full again this month. We have bookings into next year and we’ve also been asked to do more pop ups and supper clubs. We’re also delighted to be cooking the starter course at the Media launch of the Exmoor Food Festival 2023 alongside some amazing Exmoor chef colleagues. Our pop up at The Daisy Café Exeter on August 20th sold out in 4 hours.
There are many new partnerships in the pipeline and it’s fun to be visiting some amazing venues and serving all sorts of different levels of food. I have really come out of my comfort zone and its been exhilarating. We are delighted to have just done our 3rd Wedding Reception, last weekend, this time at friends Russell and Richard’s beautiful home Colleton Hall.
MOVING FORWARD
After speaking with family and close friends we have put the following plan for La Petite Bouchée with immediate effect:
Service at La Petite Bouchée will be suspended after August 27th for an unspecified period of time. ( We will be open for the Exmoor Food Festival in February 2023)
The restaurant and private dining area will be available for hire for events and celebrations ( Private Dining room min 6 Max 8 ) ( Restaurant min 14 Max 20)
In September we will Launch a monthly private Supperclub. This was always the plan when we arrived in Devon, somehow we got a bit carried away :)
We will continue to increase our private chef and events work as well as our occasional pop ups in other venues else where across the South West.
We will begin the process of merging our social media and websites over the coming weeks. For now we will keep things the same for the duration of August. For August we have one menu which is fixed price at £25 ( 2 courses ) £30 ( 3 courses ) £38.50 ( 4 courses) our last service for the time being will be on August 27th and promises to be quite the party !
SUPPERCLUB
Our first Supper Club will be on September 3rd and we'll be announcing the menu shortly and it wont be French ! You can register your interest by emailing us at here at hello@lapetiteboucheebrasserie.co.uk
From New Years Eve last year
We will do something this year. Details shortly.
In Summary
We're not going anywhere, we're just doing things differently. We changed things radically when we moved from London and look how that worked out ! Change is good and we're really happy with our plans moving forward, nothing changes, same brand, same reputation, same suppliers, just a different structure. Thank you to everyone who continues to support us To everyone who has eaten with us, bought takeaway during lockdown and just always been there for us through too many sticky times personally to mention. Just too many names to mention.
We genuinely thank you and look forward to seeing you very soon.
One Year On.....
A year ago, on July 30th I wrote to you to tell you that our beloved Nigel had died. It's been a very long year without his love, generosity, wisdom and protection and there has been a huge Nigel & Linzi shaped hole in the restaurant. I often feel him with me in the kitchen when I am trying to fix something during service or hear him laughing at me when I get things wrong. Always in our hearts and never forgotten our gorgeous friend.
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