everylittlechef

[everylittlechef]

MISSION COMPLETE. 

In 2017 Owen & Megan visited the final 41 Little Chef Ltd restaurants. 

Tickets are now on sale for the unofficial funeral at The Wardrobe Theatre on Tuesday 15th January 2019, almost one year after the final little chefs closed their doors to you, it’s your chance to come and say ‘Goodbye!’

http://thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/death-of-a-restaurant/

[everylittlechef]

Day Two - Monday 31st July 2017 & reaching Cornwall.

[everylittlechef]

Day Two - Monday 31st July 2017.

[everylittlechef]

Tired & Inspired : Day Two

Day Two: Monday 31st July 2017.

I did all of the driving on this days voyage, so Owen could be ready with his camera to jump out and photograph the Little Chefs. The new system was much more efficient. We started the day with tired crumpet faces and without breakfast but safe in the knowledge the first Little Chef stop was just seven minutes away…

Eleventh Stop: A1 Grantham (stand alone)

We arrived to the second Grantham Little Chef stand alone wooden lodge style diner just before 9am. It was a seven minute drive from the Travelodge combined Little Chef we stopped at the previous night and we were planning to get our Olympic Breakfast there but sadly we were too late.

We spent much of Sunday speculating if Debbie was right and if thirty Little Chefs really were closing overnight as so many we visited didn’t seem certain this was the case, but sadly Monday morning confirmed Debbie’s speculation. We were greeted in the car park by a friendly bearded Burger King employee come Little Chef enthusiast who immediately took interested in our van and project. He was stood by a heaving pile of Little Chef chairs, dustbins and crockery stock taking them before lifting them into a van. Owen photographed the building and piles of debris and Mary the store manager for over thirty five years came outside in the Charlie mascot head to have her photograph taken. This is the first time I’ve seen ‘Charlie’ since the 1990’s and my fear of masks and mascots is certainly still there. We left the store safe in the knowledge that all the staff still had jobs in the new Starbucks opening in eight weeks time and feeling like we’d provided some sort of gratitude documentation to Mary’s thirty five years in service to the Little Chef. She said ‘It’s a sad time, don’t get me wrong there are bad little chefs out there but we weren’t one. We looked after the regulars, we were clean, worked hard and had a laugh. I’ll never be able to drive past here again and feel the same. It is sad.’

Twelfth Stop: A16/17 Spalding

We were excited and hungry about getting our breakfast in Spalding having missed it in Grantham. It was a truck stop joined to a Burger King with parking for large vehicles. Our van looked tiny in the car park. It felt like the Little Chef was used by truckers as well as locals. Only when we arrived there was a hand written notice on the door that read ‘Due to an electricity fault we are running from a limited menu’. We couldn’t believe our bad luck. Adam - a Little Chef employee and enthusiast for the company asked if Owen was a bird watcher with his camera. We told him about our project and he was quite touched. He speculated, with tears in his eyes about the closure of their own branch, unaware what the future is but said it’s likely to become a Starbucks/Greggs combo. Adam said they had been trying to contact Head Office about the electricity for weeks as they weren’t able to run the grill, order new foods and had only a very limited menu they could serve. A family before us were turned away and we soon moved on hungry to find the next Little Chef that could serve us an Olympic breakfast, leaving behind six employees to await the next punters politely showing them the limited menu they were able to serve.

Thirteenth Stop: A47 Peterborough

Finally, breakfast! I had a veggie Early Riser: fried egg, beans, veggie sausage, sauté potatoes, grilled tomatoes and fried bread and Owen had the huge Veggie Olympic Breakfast - quite similar but double in size with extra fried beige items like hash browns and mushrooms. We washed them down with frothy coffees and an extra take away Cappuccino for the road. It was actually delicious and looked just like the website image of the re-branded breakfast. Before entering the branch a smiling waitress ran out to Owen with a 7-8 year old child’s ‘Little Chef’ t-shirt and insisted he take it as he must be a fan. Over breakfast we told her about our project and signs on the Little Chef window showed they knew they were closing, soon so were only stocking breakfast items, not the full menu. The staff know the store is going to be a Starbucks but have no idea of time scale until Head Office turn up. It could be in two weeks or six months they said. We felt full and happy to have eaten and chatted with nice people. Onwards!

Fourteenth Stop: SW Peterborough

This branch looked like a stand alone Little Chef with the traditional wooden lodge/American diner style decor but was actually adjoined to a Burger King. We quickly took the snaps. As we drove off we realised the Little Chef sign had a faded from red to a pink colour and read ‘Little Chef are recruiting now!’ which must have been on the grassy bank for many years.

Fifteenth Stop: Thrapston

This service station felt like it belonged on a motorway. It was huge with a travel lodge and Burger King adjoined. The car park here was full and it felt busy. Lots of cars here were behaving weirdly, and packed full of holiday makers.

There was lots on traffic en route. We passed an enormous Cath Kinston depot.

Sixteenth Stop: A1 meets A421 Bedford

A family of two grandparents, a mother and two small children met at this Little Chef for lunch and went in. Owen said the restaurant was busy and as we were filling for fuel he said “It’s posh inside that one was.”

Seventeenth Stop: A421 Bedford

By now we had experienced lots of bad drivers undertaking us on the A roads and eager to get to their holiday destination at any cost. Owen go out to take the photo. It seemed to take a while to get the angle correct and then he said ‘It didn’t look brilliant but alright inside’.

Eighteenth Stop: A435 meets A5 Towcester

By now we were ploughing through the Little Chefs and we were starting to get a bit delirious. The weather was quite warm and we were constantly going back on ourselves to get onto the right side of the A roads. We both started picking up American accents and were speaking as if we were storm chasers following the hot trail of Little Chef restaurants. We passed lots of buildings attempting to blend in with the skyline; such as River Island & Barr Soft Drinks with blue stripy warehouse building exteriors and a huge Morrissons with a green and yellow stripy warehouse depot. By the time we reached the Little Chef it was a stand alone and wasn’t open. It wasn’t easy to photograph but had the old fashioned classic LC interior. we wondered if this was another stand alone that closed for good just the evening before? Next to but not adjoined was a Travel Lodge. I noticed a man waiting near the fire exit with a room key and shortly afterwards a much younger lady pulled into the car park in a Mercedes and ran out to meet him. The pair ducked inside the Travel Lodge together for their meeting. Just a little observation of A road activity I thought good enough to note.

Nineteenth Stop: A41 Bicester

This small ran down Little Chef adjoined another Burger King.

Twentieth Stop: A40/A361 Butford

We were tired by this point and needed to stop for a drink and to stretch our legs. The next Little Chef was quite a surprise. It was in a listed 16th Century barn conversion and had gold lettering for ‘Little Chef’ on the exterior. From the outside it looked amazing. Inside it did feel a little stuck in the past, the tables were empty and dusty but the building itself was pretty amazing. No-one else was inside the massive congregational space of the Little Chef cathedral. Not a good sign but we ordered our hot drinks and chatted to the staff; only two were on… “you won’t find another Little Chef like this one” the older chap said. The younger lad was curious about our project and was asking us lots of questions. They both seemed relatively blarzay about the branch turning to a Starbucks and maybe even a little excited about the training in Gloucester and the lack of cooking hot food because in their words “it’s all grab and go these days.”

Twenty First Stop: Cirencester

The building was modern and fresh and adjoined to a Burger King. It really was quite smart.

En route we passed through lots of heavy rain and drove through the Cotswolds and past a place called Altrincham Mill. Tour buses were pulled up along the road and river side and masses of tourists photographed our van passing through, which in my mind must have looked like the opening credits from Postman Pat.

When we arrived I planned to just stay put in the van and do my usual update of the chalk board and re-set the Sat Nav but the staff were amazing when we arrived and the store manager Lovely Lyndsey ran out to us and insisted one of her staff get on the full Fat Charlie mascot outfit to pose for a photo with us outside. Lyndsey used to work at the previous Little Chef Cathedral and was happy we’d been there to visit. She seemed sceptical about the future of a Starbucks in Little Chefs place and isn’t a fan of their ethos for not supporting American service men. Something we hadn’t heard of before I need to look into. She was keen for us to stay for a coffee but we had to decline and get on the road to Cornwall.

We thought this would be the last stop of the evening and it felt like a really good one to end on.  

Twenty Second Stop: A30 Cornwall

We were approaching our holiday and weren’t going to stop at this branch until the return journey but as we drove along the quiet A road and directly past the branch it felt silly not to stop and snap. The staff ran out to ask what we were doing. They said “it must be the week for photos, we had the Google man here yesterday taking pictures of The Burger King”. They were bemused with our project and said “we won’t know when we close until Head Office come in and tell us” and this is the kind of comments we had from a lot of branches. They know all the stores have to close by the end of 2017. Everyone is almost nonchalant that Little Chef is closing; perhaps we’ve all been subconsciously  aware for some time that they are declining. We are getting used to the decrease of red and white diners and the increase of Starbucks and Greggs. For the staff, they seem to feel assured new jobs will replace the old and it’s just speculation when exactly their Little Chef will go and what exactly will replace it. Some people are certainly more sad than others. But for many employees it seems their management has changed so often and Head Office has been closing down and neglecting communication with the branches that people are now just curious for the change, whatever that may be.

From here we drove onto our holiday destination, where we relaxed, reflected and took stock of the Little Chef goodies we collected along the way. During the first two days of the Every Little Chef trail we had covered 703.3 miles and visited TWENTY TWO Little Chef branches.

[everylittlechef]

Day One - Sunday 30th July 2017.

[everylittlechef]

Day One - Sunday 30th July 2017.

[everylittlechef]

Tired & Inspired - Day One

We pulled up in the tired red rascal to our holiday destination just before midnight on Monday evening in Flushing near Falmouth. My dad was stood outside with a glass of ale half empty dancing at the doorstep just incase we couldn’t identify the location of the house. I’ve been to this holiday house once before when I was about six years old in 1992. Back then we stopped at the (not there now) Little Chef in Gordano. This time though we visited TWENTY TWO Little Chefs en route and covered approx 800 miles. Since arriving on Monday night we have been tired. Very tired. We spent our first day off walking by the Cornish coastal line, sipping beer and sleeping. After a long time sitting in the van extremely sober, listening to long wave radio and too much cricket, digesting all day Olympic breakfasts and slurping take away Little Chef Cappuccinos as we travelled between branches, it now feels really good to be outside digesting beer & salty sea air far away from the A roads. But as relaxing as this is, the Little Chef trail is compelling for reasons we still aren’t sure about. Our musing and amusing mission is taking up lots of conversation with our family in Cornwall as we reflect on previous family holidays driving from North Derbyshire down South, always stopping at a Little Chef en route. My fave thing was the ‘Build Your Own Breakfast’ on the kids menu and the red and white American style diner was a strangely safe place for a fussy vegetarian family of four. I could tailor pick a plate of beige just the way I liked it (and because the journey along A roads towards the motorway in a crammed Citroen car overfilled with travel sweets, arguments, a selection of road maps, a dog, and a bike rack brimming with trikes and body boards as the sounds of my annoying times table cassette tape wafted through the stereo, this meant the holiday had officially started) and also meant the deep fried bread and corrugated lollies before 10am were overlooked and approved. The holiday has begun!

This is the story of how our journey on Sunday 30th & Monday 31st July 2017 has gone so far…

Day One: Sunday 30th July

Owen did most of the driving. I was navigator. When we pulled up to each Little Chef branch we’d both jump out like eager press puppies. Whilst Owen was photographing, I’d take notes on each branch, usually pop inside to purchase something and then get Google Maps on my phone set up to guide us to the next stop. Before we moved on it was my job to update our black board (which was stuck to the back window) with how many Little Chefs we had visited so far.

First Stop : A1 North Newcastle Branch

This was were we ate breakfast and met Debbie. We had quite a lengthy chat with her in-between serving other customers. I’ve paraphrased some of the things she said to us  whilst taking our order & serving Owen’s lucky egg, then making sure we left her branch with plates of information, Little Chef lollies, bright red draw string book bags and fruit of the loom 9-11 year old ‘Little Chef’ branded T’s…

“People don’t wanna pay £15 per head for a meal during a car journey”.

“Most of the sites will be bulldozed down, it’s cheaper to start again”.

“We do better as a sister site. All of the ones joined to Burger King do better”.

When she told us we had better be quick because thirty stand alone stores closed that night she proceeded to speculate. We’ve learnt on this journey that there is no active Little Chef Head office. Owen & I have tried to contact them several times over the last eighteen months, not for financial support but to get up to date information on the last remaining stores and for more facts to fuel our growing fire of intrigue. We’ve left voicemails and emails to sit on answering machines and inside mailboxes ignored and un replied to. Debbie told us that she worked at this branch of Little Chef 15 years ago and again more recently. The branch has changed a lot in the fifteen year gap. She isn’t surprised the Little Chefs are declining and thinks road travel has changed a lot over the years. She expects her branch to become a Greggs or Starbucks and was surprisingly kind of fine with it. She’s heard that there is a sign on the Motorway near London saying ‘Little Chef Opening in 2018’ which is causing a lot of speculation between branches who haven’t been passed on any info apart from that the Little Chef company will close before the year is out and their jobs will change to the new venture whatever it may be. As we sped off hoping catch come of the closing Little Chefs our minds were spinning with questions from our discussion with Debbie; Will Little Chef re-open? Will they re-launch? Is there a princess who lives abroad planning great things with the Little Chef brand? What about Euro Garages? Where will the old time regulars go for their Olympic Breakfasts?

Second Stop : A69 towards Carlisle

This was where I purchased a take away Cappuccino and the staff were bemused. There was one customer inside enjoying a fry up.

Third Stop: A66 Penrith

From the larks of the night before I was thirsty, dehydrated from my coffee and was now craving some fizzy pop so I ran inside the Little Chef (adjoined with a Burger King) and grabbed a Sprite from the Little Chef counter to take away. The lady behind the desk had lovely turquoise hair, was called Cat and was super smiley, friendly and interested to know what we were doing. She asked the same question lots of people have: ‘Why Little Chef?’ and our answer is developing each time from ‘it’s just a photography project’ and ‘why not’ or ‘we’re not really sure ourselves’ to ‘well it’s just a piece of British history isn’t it and someone should document it before it goes’. Cat called through to her manager Keith to tell him what we were doing and the pair were more than happy to pose outside the their branch for a picture. Keith was proud and eager to tell us ‘We’re just as busy as Burger King!’ and I believe him. The staff were lovely, the restaurant was clean and welcoming and you could see the team got along well bringing their own vibe to the place. We were sad to cut the convo short but sped off to our next stop.

Between the drives our ears were popping as Owen noted we were 1000 feet up. It felt like we were flying through mountains.

Fourth Stop: A59 Skipton

Keith told us this branch closed at 2pm but perhaps that was on a week day, for when we arrived it was still open, but pouring with rain. Owen had to take the photo by standing under the canopy of the open van boot and try to avoid the relentless downpour of rain ruining his kit. I was desperate for the loo and ran in to use it. They were grotty and ran down but I still felt obliged to buy something so I ordered us both a tea. We were sad they came in Burger King cups instead of Little Chef ones.

During the drive between Skipton and York the rain continued, cleared, continued, cleared…. as we drove through the winding Yorkshire Moors.

Fifth Stop: A64 York

We started to feel sad we only had five ticked off and enthusiasm was fading. The branch was fresh looking which Owen didn’t like, although I thought it was quite smart, but either way it was still joined to another Burger King. We pulled outside, took a quick snap and our eagerness for going inside to purchase something or anything and chatting with the staff and their speculations was fading, as we began to feel daunted by the task ahead. A lady exercising her dog along the side of the A64 didn’t take her eyes off us as she circled the grass surrounding us. It made us feel weird and as soon as Owen got the picture of the York branch we sped off. Pressured more by the fact we had so many Little Chefs to visit than the staring lady and her tiny hound.

As we drove away our mood lifted as the rain cleared and we constantly seemed to be driving towards two mythical pots of gold at the bottom of a vibrant and clear double rainbow. Something to remind us we were lucky eggs!

Sixth Stop: A1 North Doncaster

This Little Chef looked large but it was probably just the modern style building with glass windows making it feel larger than it was. It had the same new contemporary feel to it as the previous one and it looked busy inside. We quickly took a snap and got back on the trail. It was getting dark.

Seventh Stop: A1 South Worksop

We had to come off the A1 and reverse direction to get into the Little Chef. This is something we had to do quite a lot on the A roads and it was becoming irritating knowing we had to spend minutes driving in the wrong direction to get off and return in the right direction, then quite often turning round after we’d taken the shot to go back on ourselves once more to get to the next destination. As it got later and darker it was getting more and more annoying. Luckily en route to this one we passed the famous(ish) architectural listed roof building that used to be a Little Chef/Travelodge and Owen insisted we pull into a pub car park so he could jump across the fences and through two fields in the pitch black to get a shot of the derelict building which has yet to be turned into a Starbucks of Greggs. I stayed in the van and locked the doors. It was getting late and a little bit of me expected to hear a farmers gunshot. I didn’t of course and Owen returned over the fences with some snaps and was buzzing. Then we went on to the South Worksop branch, which was joined to a Travel Lodge, got a quick photo (it was closed for the evening) and drove onwards…

Eighth Stop: A46 South Lincoln

It was really dark now and starting to rain again. We parked over the top of a puddle. Owen seemed to take ages faffing for the right shot. We could see people sat inside the Little Chef but on closer inspection they were eating Burger King from the adjoining chain and the lights above the Little Chef counter were firmly off. We were both flagging, looking forward to a beer before bed and hoping we could find a roadside hotel with a bar.

Ninth Stop: A17 Sleaford

Another closed for the night Little Chef shot in the dark with our tired sleepy crumpet faces loosing enthusiasm. To add the icing onto our stale cake faces we just discovered there are two more restaurants we hadn’t plotted on our original route and add the two branches onto our map below Grantham. The light is perfect for taking photos. It’s nearly 10.30pm. We need to find a hotel sooner than anticipated.

Tenth Stop: A1 South Grantham

This branch looked great from the outside. Even more great because it was paired with a Travelodge. We took a super quick snap of the Little Chef, then headed into the lodge to book a £45 bed for the night, without breakfast. There was no hotel bar but a Spar Shop in the Shell Garage we hoped would stock beer. Unfortunately it was a dry store ran by a chap called Trevor who wanted to tell us more about his hours of work that week in the Esso/Spar Garage/Shop than our tired ears had the patience to listen to. We made our excuses to leave quickly. Our dinner that night wasn’t at Little Chef but a packet of pretzel pieces, a grab sized bag of pickled onion monster munch, washed down with a mug of typhoo tea with long life milk from the hotel room. Our heads heavily hit the pillows around 11.30pm and just before we fell asleep we laughed and repeated ‘what the bloody hell are we doing?’ and ‘this is ridiculous, what if the Little Chef trail kills us? What a way to go!’

Monday 31st July coming shortly, with twelve more Little Chef stops between Grantham & Cornwall. 

[everylittlechef]

Our first two stops in Newcastle. I didn't get a good picture of the A69 branch but owen is taking decent photos of them all on his 'proper' camera.

[everylittlechef]

We're off! And the race is ON!

So Owen & I have been together for ten years. When first we met over a decade ago in Liverpool we formed a band called SPIP - Shouldn't Perform In Public. Ten years later we have made another project called Melvis; still in development, we decided to preview it at the amazing Cobalt Studios, Newcastle before holidaying in Cornwall. It's a live art piece where Megan briefly plays the role of Elvis. Ironically it's inspired by nostalgic notions and the ideals of the past. The long drive between our Newcastle gig venue and Cornwall got us thinking about car journeys, about what this one would be like as it's a long stretch travelling way above 500 miles in our beloved red (miles have just gone round the clock) 1986 Bedford Rascal at 65 mph. And it got us thinking about journeys we've undertaken before now and in our childhood. We talked lots about eating at service stations and how these days we try to stop for little time and spend less, always rushing and viewing the journey as a transitional necessity as opposed to an exploration of space, land and utilising time for discovering the new. Perhaps this has something to do with the Little Chef declines; perhaps it says something about who we are today as a collective of people living in Britain. Always rushing? Spoilt with leisure activities that the time in between locations and the Sunday drive is not longer viewed as leisurely but laborious. Perhaps it doesn't say anything. Perhaps Little Chef isn't even interesting anymore. Perhaps they don't give kids the corrugated lollies these days, perhaps the all day breakfast isn't as big as it used to be? Who knows. We didn't. And so we decided to explore the spaces in between Newcastle and Cornwall by visiting the Little Chefs, photographing them, taking some notes and recording and enjoying the journey. Taking it steady, without a plan or huge agenda but with a goal. A goal to document Every Little Chef in the UK. That goal just got a whole lot harder. We are hungover after Melvis last night. We got to bed at 5am(ish) and set off later than anticipated around midday. I stared writing this post after our first Little Chef stop, just off the A1, North Newcastle. We had breakfast there and met Debbie who worked at the A1 branch. I ordered pancakes with a tea and Owen had coffee and egg on toast. When we told Debbie about our project she said the double yolk on Owen's toast was lucky but what she proceeded to tell us next was beyond what we ever considered when setting out to document the declining Little Chefs. Everyone knows they are fading fast. Every now and then you see a Little Chef close and a Chinese restaurant, car wash or Starbucks pop up in its place. We had no idea how fast this was happening though. Our map has almost 60 red dots marked on it and we were aware before set off that some of these would be closed before we reached them. What we weren't prepared for and what Debbie told us next is.... TONIGHT (the day we get out of bed hungover and have decided to start our project, with the glitter of last night still stuck to our faces) is the day that THIRTY restaurants will close. That's over half the number on our map! We finished our plates, paid the bill, took a photo of Leigh & Reese outside and sped off. We just stopped at the A69 branch towards Carlisle. I ordered a take away Cappuccino, owen took a photo of the restaurant; a beautiful traditional style one just how you'd remember them being with red and white gingham curtains and wooden panel lodge style interior, but fairly ran down and lonesome looking. I explained to the staff what we were doing. They were bemused but interested and keen to see Owen's photos when they are complete. They didn't want a photo outside but wished us luck and we are now on our way to the Penrith branch. I'm happy to say the corrugated lollies are still available for kids upon paying your bill. They are smaller than I remember but I'm sure they are exactly the same. In both restaurants service wasn't busy but steady. From what we can tell so far, some people still like to eat outside their cars in a familiar diner setting and enjoy an all day breakfast at 2pm to break up their journey along the A roads. I'll keep you updated with what happens next. After a sunny start to the day with eggs sunny side up and hopeful beginings, the rain is starting to set in, the winds are blowing the van a little and the starter motor is growling a bit like a screechy cat, but at least we started the project today and not tomorrow. The egg was right. We are lucky. We are lucky eggs and we are hopeful.