When
Mrs Jones and I are out and about on outings, we often find ourselves looking for place to eat and I have noticed that some of the familiars are not around as much as they used to be.... Case in point,
Wimpy, all the good things that we
expect from a hamburger-based eating establishment on the high street
but with the added bonus of having it brought over to your table on a
plate and you get to eat it with a knife and fork! Very upmarket! and
typically British... Funny when you consider how “
Wimpy Grills”
was first established by a Mr Edward Gold of Bloomington, Indiana
in 1934 who later licensed the Wimpy (inspired by Popeye's pal J.
Wellington Wimpy) franchise to British restaurant chain J. Lyons and
Co in 1954. Lyons and Co. opened their first UK based "
Wimpy
Bar" at the Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London as a
novelty, having fast-food section served within their more
traditional Corner House restaurants. Sure enough it was a success
and it led to the establishment of separate Wimpy restaurants serving
only hamburger-based meals and a British institution was born. At its
height in the 1970 there were 500 restaurants serving hamburgers
across the UK but sadly by 1989 the number of locations had dropped
to 381. It seemed that Wimpy was loosing the battle to McDonald’s
(who had opened their first UK restaurant in 1974). It was also
during this time that Grand Metropolitan (whom owned the rights to
Burger King) had bought the rights to Wimpy, and started converting
their "counter service" restaurants to the Burger King's
because it had a greater global brand recognition (interestingly the
first UK Burger King was opened in 1977 in the same Coventry Street
premises that Wimpy started out in 1954!). In 2002 there were
approximately 300 Wimpy establishments in the UK and Ireland and now
in 2017 there are only 81 still in business, now I am no
mathematician but I have noticed that the numbers are going down! I
must stress that I am not one of these Moaning Minnies that blames
the bigger chains for the decline. A quick look up and down the high
street tells me that it's a jungle out there and there are several
restaurants competing for our appetite and money so I (personally) don't blame the
Clown, The King and Colonel for this.
Moving on from the High Street we stop off at the
roadside for another classic British institution (albeit inspired by
an American concept) the Little Chef. First opened near Reading in
Berkshire in 1958 as travellers had started to frequent the new and
expanding road networks of the United Kingdom. English caravan
designer, artist and philanthropist Mr. Samuel Alper OBE (1924–
2002) inspired by the small roadside diners he had frequented in
America realised his vision of a family friendly place to stop and
eat that provided a break from the usual roadside eating
establishment inhabited by truckers and bikers and by 1968 there were
25 Little Chef restraints located beside the UK's roads 44 by 1970
and 100 outlets by 1972! By the time they added Jubilee
Pancakes to the menu in 1977 there were 174 Little Chefs up and
down the country! Little Chef was doing
great, it only had one real roadside competitor, Happy Eater (which
had been founded in 1973 by Michael Pickard) But the competition
ended in 1985 when Happy Eater owners the Imperial Group conglomerate
sold its brand and 75 restaurants to Little Chef owners Trusthouse
Forte (later just Forte) and so both brands ran side by side into the
1990's.
Little Chef introduced
the Olympic breakfast in 1994 and a spin-off brand called "Little
Chef Express" in 1995 to rival fast food outlets which had
started to become more commonplace before the chains were bought up
in an aggressive takeover by Granada in 1996. At its peak in 2000
there were 450 restaurants trading but all good things... In 2006, it
emerged that Little Chef was undergoing serious financial problems
and had lost nearly half of its branches in five years. Little Chef
was taken into administration, and the company was rescued in 2007 by
RCapital, a UK private equity group, which paid less than £10
million however 38 of the 235 branches were not included in the sale
and were closed immediately the decline of Little Chef was blamed on
the increased numbers of pub restaurants and service stations having
Marks & Spencer Simply Food sections and coffee chains such as
Costa and Starbucks and of course the Clown, The King and Colonel. In
2012, Little Chef announced that it planned to close 67 of its
failing restaurants and year by year another restaurant would close
and now at the time of writing this, with only 70 restaurants
remaining it has been revealed that Little Chef is facing yet another
takeover that could see it completely disappear from our roads
forever! Euro Garages already in partnerships with Starbucks, Subway,
Greggs and Burger King are in “advanced talks” to buy
the brand and its restaurants this has left many Little Chef
employees fearing for the restaurant's future!
“
So Arfon, this is all very
interesting but where are you going with all this?” Well, feeling
some what saddened at the apparent decline of these classic eating
places I, Arfon Jones, have decided to make it my mission to seek out
the remaining Wimpy and Little Chef establishments I will frequent
and document them on this site, we've lost Woolworths and British
Home Stores and now it looks like we might loose the Bender Burger
and Olympic Breakfast too! So join me in this little segment that
will hopefully have you salivating and savouring your memories and
encouraging you to revisit! First two.
Wimpy, 160 Streatham High
Road
Streatham, London, SW16 1BJ
Conveniently adjacent to Streatham
ODEON is one of the oldest Wimpys in Britain, having been open for 42
years! Nice and clean and everything you expect of a Wimpy Bar. On
the first leg of my mission I had the Mega Burger comprising of a
100% beef burger, cheese, onions and ketchup finished with the the
trademark bender frankfurter sausage with a side order of chips.
Followed by desert the classic Brown Derby, a doughnut served with
ice cream, chocolate and nuts. Very nice it was too, being an
establishment that has been open and in the same hands for 42 years
the staff were friendly and professional. I highly recommender a
visit.
 |
The Mega Burger (complete with trademark bender sausage) with a side order of chips. The other Wimpy classic
the Brown Derby, a doughnut served with ice cream, chocolate and nuts. |
and
Little Chef Northop Hall, A55
Little Chef in Northop Hall located on the A55 their
website
informs us, “We are on the border of England and Wales which makes
it easy to access lots of popular attractions with Chester Zoo and
the Blue Planet aquarium less then 20 minutes away there's plenty to
keep the kids entertained” (can't argue with that), “around 1
hour away from Holyhead restaurant a perfect stop off on your way
from Ireland” again quite true, as the other 3 Little Chefs you
once would have passed on your way to Holyhead (Penmaenmawr, Menai
Bridge and Gaerwen) have long since closed. We both had the 'Early
Starter' Breakfast comprising of a rasher of back bacon, British pork
sausage, a griddle-fried free range egg, two hash browns and Heinz
baked beans served with toast opting for the additional extra
griddled tomato, mushrooms (Mrs Jones also had the black pudding
slice) To once again quote their website, “Our staff here at
Northop Hall are friendly and helpful. We pride ourselves on being a
happy team” no argument here, very friendly staff, nothing was too
much trouble. Bonus points for the free T-shirts and lollipops!
 |
'Early Starter' Breakfast and free lollipop!
|
My sincere thanks to
former Little Chef employee Adrian Atkins for very kindly correcting
some errors and providing further information. Many thanks Adrian!
©
Arfon Jones 2017. All images are
copyrighted throughout the world.
I've been out 'n about again! Last Saturday Mrs Jones and I paid a
return visit to the beautiful town of Chepstow for this year's
Steampunk Spring market. Following on from the very successful market
held last year, Lady Alice of Frugonia organised another opportunity
to update one's wardrobe, home ware and accessories while catching up
with friends old and new and mingle with some of the most talented,
friendly and finely attired folk in Britain oh, and launch a new
book! Strange Times in Little
Happining written by my talented wife Beth Jones (and
illustrated by Moi) was officially launched at the event. As
mentioned in a previous post this is a tale of mysterious murders
and strange occurrences in the quiet (fictional) rural town of Little
Happining and even though the book is available on Amazon, Chepstow
seemed ideal to officially launch it, and we were right, it was very
well received. Inspector Mandalay's most demanding case intrigued
many a market patron who purchased copies promptly signed by Mrs
Jones. The table also had a small
display from the Little
Happining museum and cakes from the Little Happining Tea Rooms
presented free with each book! A big thank you to all
that bought the book, I know you will enjoy it (Incidently, once you
are done how about joining the Facebook group? or even leaving your
thoughts and feedback on the Amazon page?). My/Our sincere thanks to
everyone that come over to the table and supported the book and
likewise to all involved in its organising, and running
congratulations it ran like a well oiled cog and we look forward to
the next!
