14 minute read
From Humble Beginnings Big Boys Burger Co
FROM HUMBLE
BEGINNINGS By Guy Meurice
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Gaz and Guy, owners of Big Boys Fine Burger Co. on the Old High St. in Folkestone have always had a drive to do their own thing. Unafraid of being a bit different (or even occasionally a bit weird) it’s at the core of almost everything they do.
Photo ©Amelia Hedley
From a BBQ in an oil drum at Saltwood Cricket Club, to a pop-up at the Nutmeg in Hythe, they made their home on the Old High St in Folkestone in 2014 and have since taken their burgers all the way to winning Burger Chef of the Year 2020 at the National Burger Awards. Their winning entry, ‘Oniontended Consequences’, was made with ingredients provided by the sponsors of the event and was selected as the winner by the sponsors. Coowner and head chef Gaz says “It was quite difficult to come up with something that stood out of the crowd, as we all had to use the same ingredients. In the end we really wanted to ensure the flavour really came through so focused on that. Previously winners had been more showy, but I felt that ‘flavour over form’ was the best option.”
During the latest lockdown they’ve launched their cook-at-home burger kits. These gourmet packs include everything you need to make one of their epic ‘specials’, locally delivered on a Friday to your door. Recent kits have included the obs’Cene, a spicy collaboration with ‘Cene Magazine and Don’t Risk It For a Brisket (We’ll Bring It To You), which is accompanied by their 9 hour smoked USDA brisket and the realisation that their burger names have become too ridiculous.
Most recently their weird and wonderful journey has taken them onto Facebook Marketplace, where they’ve purchased a 1970’s Commer van. Seeking new avenues to expand
and diversify their business in these strange and unpredictable times, the brothers hope to be able to bring burgers back to Hythe with pop ups from the van along the seafront and on the High St.
Their new acquisition needs a little modernisation, as it is a bit of a ‘barn find’. The engine is currently stored in the back of the van itself. They’ll begin by stripping everything out of the van and taking stock of what is there. Gaz’s brother and co-owner Guy says “We’re really biting off a lot with this one, but we’ve been dreaming of a proper American food truck since the very beginning and this is a British version of the US Chrysler step vans. I’m really excited to get my hands on it and start to make it our own.”
Their dream for the van is to have it up and running in 2021 to be able to cater weddings and events. They will soon be opening a crowdfunding page so that their fans can help them to make the burger van of their dreams a reality. Guy says “We’re hoping to offer some really cool rewards for people who support the crowdfunding. I want to have a whole panel of the van dedicated to the people who have helped us over the years. We wouldn’t be where we are now without the help of our friends, family, staff and customers so I want to make sure they know how valued they are!”
Keep an eye on their social media for the crowdfunding launch, and if you’re feeling hungry, head to their website https://bigboysburgers.co.uk/shop to order one of their delicious cook-at-home burger kits.
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Your Magazine Needs You
As a Community magazine we are always keen to report interesting things in the local area. This is where you come in. If you have a story or a piece of news that you think is of interest to the people of Hythe let us know and we will be delighted to include it in a future edition of the magazine. Be it historical, current or just simply about a local unsung hero who you think deserves recognition, email us at: editor@hythelife.org.uk
All submissions will be considered by the Hythe Life Editorial team before a decision is made as to whether it will be included in the magazine. Submission of an article is not a guarantee that it will be published.
Shop Local this Christmas, with shophythe.co.uk By Angela Dickinson
Like many people with busy lives, I tend to do a great deal of my gift shopping on-line, particularly around Christmas when, as a teacher/parent/town councillor there’s SO MUCH to do and the dark winter evenings make the comforts of home more attractive than trailing around shops. This year it looks like I’ll be browsing and clicking without guilt!
Following a 102% surge in UK demand for online shopping, click-and-collect and deliveries throughout 2020, local entrepreneurs have collaborated on a new initiative to help support Hythe’s High Street traders this Christmas, by bringing Hythe’s eclectic and unique mix of traders straight to you for all your Christmas gift needs.
The website has been designed with the customer in mind, so that we can shop in categories such as ‘gifts for him’ (which is always the HARDEST thing about shopping!). There’s also something to suit most budgets with ‘gifts under £30’ and ‘stocking fillers’ available too.
After overseeing the successful launch of a similar project for Folkestone’s Old High Street traders (shoptheoldhighstreet.co.uk) local-shop devotee (and Big Boy Burger co-owner) Guy Meurice recognised that Hythe’s small businesses deserve a similar boost. Keying into Hythe residents’ affection for their High Street and loyalty to local business, shophythe.co.uk will enable shoppers to browse for gifts with confidence that their money is staying in the local economy and supporting our community. The project is being supported by the Hythe Business and Tourism Association.
For local businesses, the concept is simple, enabling them to reach a wide audience but without creating an additional technical burden for them. The website provides a virtual ‘shop window’ and a focal point for local shoppers. Once the customer clicks, they will be taken to the traders own online offering to complete their transaction. This could be an eBay shop,
an Etsy store or even a page on social media. This ensures there are no additional fees and leaves control of the purchase and customer services firmly in the hands of local traders, so that the all-important personal touches and individuality of Hythe Street won’t be lost.
Shopping local has so many other advantages too! It creates valuable local employment, helps maintain the local personality and character of our town, and facilitates really high-quality personalised customer service that just can’t be replicated by national chains and international taxavoiding-megalithic dotcoms (you know who I mean!).
By supporting local businesses we can also contribute towards a healthier environment, choosing a local company over a chain can actually have a positive impact on the environment. If more people chose to pop to the local high street rather than driving to the superstores, this would considerably reduce air pollution, reduce traffic and improve the quality of the nation’s high streets. Thanks to shophythe.co.uk you can now do your bit from the comfort of your home, and your collection or delivery is just short step away.
Shop local this Christmas (and beyond) shophythe.co.uk shoptheoldhighstreet.co.uk
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Artistic visions of Hythe and Saltwood By Matt Wilson
How can we best appreciate the landscapes in and around Hythe and Saltwood? Over the centuries a small group of important artists have depicted it, and I believe that their method of seeing and recording it can in turn help us to appreciate it better.
My favourite painting done in the village was painted by a lesser-known artist called George Lambert in 1762, now in the Yale Centre for British Art. Lambert’s subject was Saltwood Castle, and he depicted it in a romanticised evening light, from below and beside a group of idling farm workers and sheep. It looks more like a Tuscan hill village, and the castle doesn’t have a great sense of architectural accuracy. It was painted in a period where British artists were taking their lead from European landscapists like Claude and Poussin, softening native vistas to emulate Italian landscapes – a style later dubbed the ‘picturesque’. Despite the embellishments it’s obvious that Lambert visited the site,, taking in a range of perspectives on the castle and amalgamated them to achieve a pleasing composite.
Not much later, in 1795 a young JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin sketched Saltwood Castle with a more purposefully accurate artistic method. The Girtin is currently also in the Yale Centre for British Art and the Turner is in the Ashmolean in Oxford. They are both quite different from the Lambert, showing an attentive exactness and a freshness of vision that makes them look as if they were drawn yesterday.
Turner came back to Saltwood and Hythe later in his career. In around 1816 he walked here along the coast from Folkestone, sketching along the way, and took an extended detour to sketch Saltwood Castle, this time from several perspectives. If you use the Tate Gallery website and search for Saltwood you can see all the drawings from a single sketchbook and work out the exact walk he took. It looks like he came up from Hythe to draw the sea-facing facade of the castle, then circulated around it to capture the entrance. Then he seems to have walked up onto the ridge by Blackhouse Hill where from the same spot he sketched the castle once more, and the view of Hythe. The mark-making is different to his and Girtin’s earlier approach – this time rapid, impressionistic yet deft, and he conveys the spirit of the scenes better than any photograph could.
Of more importance to Turner’s oeuvre and British art in general is a view he took from the hill above the RHDR station (built later) in Hythe. This view (labelled D10497 in the Tate archives) was later transformed into a popular engraving (Tate T05259) in 1824 which includes St Leonard’s church, the military canal, the army barracks and a group of soldiers in the foreground. This combination of a serene landscape with a coded message about the defence of the realm is characteristic of much of Turner’s work in the period.
In the twentieth century Hamish Fulton, a later Saltwood resident, characterises himself as a ‘walking artist’ whose art, rather than being a physical object like a painting or sculpture, is the act of hiking itself. Two local works exemplify his work: Whitehill Wood / A Two Day Walk from Saltwood to Canterbury and Back / Travelling by way of the Roman Road from 1972 and 1975’s France on the Horizon. Both are photographs that make a record of these ‘art walks’.
Fulton’s approach chimes with all the art I’ve discussed, and hopefully settles the question of how you can best see our local landscapes With eyes primed for natural beauty, artistic visions and historical interest: get walking.
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