Table for two……

So for obvious reasons our supper club has been closed for business since March, which was a massive blow after putting so much into getting up and running in January.

But we’re not the type to let the grass grow under our feet and during that time we’ve been on a whirlwind ride to say the least. Such a ride that it’s a job to even know where to start telling the story.

As many of you will know Odile and I ran two separate businesses, opposite one another on the high street in Louth. A butchers and a Nail Salon, I’ll leave it to your imagination who’s was who’s!

Right at the beginning of COVID Odile’s nail salon was closed by the national lockdown, and my butchers shop was just too small to operate safety and efficiently so also closed.

Fortunately at the butchers we had an online platform and it made sense the utilise it to operate a local delivery service. Odile and I decided we could operate this between the two of us and reduce the risk to staff, customers and ourselves in the process. Staff were placed on furlough and we set off into the unknown hoping for the best.

We couldn’t of imagined how well it would have worked and after a few weeks it became apparent to us that COVID wasn’t going to be a short lived thing. As much as we could continue the business, work together and see a way forward it was very clear we couldn’t support the luxury of having staff and there was no way that we could reopen the butchers shop and make it viable.

It was time to take some tough decisions, and there were many tears shed in the process. Odile was in the position of being able to reopen but with social distancing and her salon being so small only one person could work, meaning either she went back to work and made her friend Catherine redundant, or let Catherine go back to work and forgo an income herself. Meanwhile I had to break the news to my staff Ryan and Aarron that there was no longer a job for them.

Odile took the heart breaking decision that the best way forward for her and Catherine was to give Catherine the salon business, so the she could carve out a living for herself and Odile would join me in taking the butchery business forward.

Now we really had to put our shoulders to the wheel and it became apparent very quickly that we needed to adapt the business and commit to going totally online. This ment we could expand the offering of the business to include cheese, vegetables, fish and more. It made total sense now to rebrand the business to better reflect what we were doing and The Mansion Farm, Online Farm Shop & Deli was born.

There’s a long journey ahead, a relocation from the high street back to the farm, not to mention the day to day running of the business, oh and Christmas!

But it’s such an amazing opportunity to build on what we’ve created with the Secret Passage Supper Club, with a business that sits alongside it, while working together and pursuing our dream of being self sufficient. We know it’s going to be hard work, but we’re so excited.

During this time we’ve been overhauling the dining room ready for reopening the supper club sometime in 2021 hopefully, which you can read all about in our previous blog post.

As for many people, it’s felt like being on a treadmill, with no respite, our holiday was cancelled and we’ve not been out for a meal and things like the cinema or a weekend away seem like a lifetime away.

So we decided once the last brush stroke of paint went on in the dining room that we had to do something special to celebrate.

A night out! At home!

We needed a bit of escapism so we pre prepared a meal, packed a bag, and checked into the spare room!

After a candlelit bubble bath we got dressed up, did make up, hair and spashed on some aftershave before heading down to the Secret Passage Supper Club, table for two!

Dinner commenced with breaded calamari, with homemade lemon and tarragon mayonnaise

Followed by honey glazed 36 hour belly pork, confit carrots, red cabbage purée, sous vide mashed potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and a cider, sage and onion gravy.

Dessert was a pear and pistachio frangipani tart served with our world famous homemade evaporated milk ice cream.

Not ones to do things by halves we had to have a cheese board! Oh and nearly forgot we had a matching wine flight too!

What a fantastic evening it was and just the trick after what’s been such a difficult few months, but best of all there was no bill to settle when we checked out!

Let’s hope the next time we have the dining room in full sail it will be for a table full of supper club guests! Until then we wish you a very merry, and safe Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

J&O