Rags to Riches: Indian to Elderberry

So Samantha and I are about to take on a challenge, a big one! We have given ourselves no more than 4 weeks from when we get the keys to transform a really shabby Indian restaurant, (which will remain nameless) into a fantastic new restaurant that we are proudly naming Elderberry Restaurant.

Elderberry Restaurant is set to be a new, modern British restaurant. We will be using the best British seasonal produce, that will be locally sourced where possible. We aim to rework and remix traditional British food and techniques whilst giving a nod of acknowledgement to continental and world influences, which I think is what modern British food is all about.

Now all this does not seem to me like a completely outrageous idea of what a good British restaurant should be aiming to achieve in a great little British town like Rayleigh. Sadly it is a really hard thing to find, and to my knowledge Elderberry Restaurant will be the only one that tries to achieve this in this town and indeed the immediate area.

Now I am a fan of having a varied selection of places to eat. I love Italian food and there are a few good pizza and pasta places about. (Not even real Italian food) There are also a number of fairly good places to go and get Indian or Chinese food. I can go on forever listing what I like and where I can get it, and it is fantastic that Rayleigh, Essex and even Britain can boast that. But isn't it sad that whilst we have been busy enjoying as many different world foods as we can we have forgotten what British food is really all about.

Now it is not all doom and gloom for Britain, in recent years it has got much better and I think that this is mainly down to certain TV chef's and TV programmes really pushing British food. More and more people are cooking British at home, and that is fantastic. Supermarkets are stocking more British produce and the labelling on food is better than it has ever been, I think that there is still room for great improvement on all counts but its a bloody good start.

What worries me at the moment is that there are still not too many 'local' decent restaurants serving proud British food using local British produce. I put emphasis on the word local so that you do not misinterpret what I am talking about here and the exact point I am trying to put across. There are a lot more British restaurants and many owned and operated by up and coming celeb chefs and seekers of Michelin stars, and this is not local. These restaurants are often priced out of Joe Blogg's budget for regular dining and so these venues are reserved for special occasions. This means when Joe Blogg's wants to go out for a meal, just because, all he is left with is pizza and pasta, Chinese or Indian. Am I wrong? I certainly do not have many decent British restaurants within a 5 to 10 mile radius of where I live and work, and that is why we are opening Elderberry Restaurant.

Rant over, that is my crusade for the day over with. Now would you like to see some pictures of what kind of a mess we are starting with? Samantha took some pictures of the condition of the property, the restaurant and the flat above just so we could check back and see what we are letting ourselves in for. 

When we get some keys (eventually) we will take a lot more before, during and after pictures, but for now you will just have to make do at what we have. Enjoy.

So this is our lovely restaurant! What ya think? Hahaha.

And here are the pictures of what currently is a completely gross flat, that Sam and I will need to do a bit of a fixxer-upper before we can move in.

I will keep you posted with during and after pictures of refitting both restaurant and home, but for now I got a lot of work to do!