August 2021

17 Buckden Roundabout August 2021 Support Buckden Businesses time to pause and reflect, have you experienced any posi- tives? Yes, definitely there have been lots of positives, firstly the community support has been amazing, we ’ ve really appreciat- ed that during the darkest times. The fact that we were able to do a mini refurb during the first lockdown without impacting trade worked well. I also think attitudes changed too, as we all stopped to see what ’ s under our noses and there was a big shift towards wanting to support local businesses and communities which has been great to see. We started our takeaway business which helped to introduce people to the fact that we now do food. Did you have a good response to your takeaway offering? Yes, we were really pleased with the uptake. Sunday lunches in particular proved to be really popular, and we have a lot of repeat customers from it. Our best day was Mother ’ s Day when we did 180 meals and had demand for more but with only two of us in the kitchen unfortunately 180 was our max. We ’ re planning to continue offering takeaway despite the pub now being open for food. I ’ ve seen you mention on social about Days of Buckden at The Vine, how did this partnership come about? Well, we know how amazing the produce is from Days and it has a great reputation, so it was a no brainer to buy all our meat from them and I wanted to shout about it as they ’ re so well known locally. We try to support local where we can, as well as Days we source all our eggs and things like pork pies and scotch eggs locally. We also serve both Buckden gins, the Buckden beer and there is a Buckden cider coming very soon that we ’ ll stock. How would you describe the food at the Vine? Tasty pub grub, we do breakfast, lunch and dinner, have all your pub classics, a big selection of burgers, plenty of lighter bites for lunch and roasts on a Sunday. One thing we ’ re developing on the drinks side is our Gin and Whisky selection as we know that people like to treat them- selves to something new and different when they come out, so we ’ re keen to cater for that. What plans have you got for the Vine moving forward? We ’ re keen to start doing more events as things continue to open up. We already do a quiz night every other Thursday and we ’ ve got a couple of ad hoc events in the diary so far, a beer festival on the 17 th July, a Parkinson ’ s music festival on the 17 th Sept and we ’ re in the process of locking in a date for hosting a dementia friends support group for carers. There are a lot of really passionate supporters of different charities in the village so it ’ s great to help where we can with any gatherings people want to do. The other big thing will be the next stage of refurbishing the pub, we managed stage one during lockdown but there is a lot more we want to do so watch this space! What challenges do you envisage for the hospitality industry moving forward? It ’ s an interesting time for us as we all try and recover from the pandemic. There are definite supply issues out there currently, some as a consequence of COVID times with companies being cautious or still having staff on furlough, others that are relat- ed to Brexit. We ’ re also seeing a big shortage in the industry of both chefs and front of house staff due to a lot of Europeans heading back home after Brexit. So, there are definitely some challenges to overcome but we ’ re a resilient industry and we ’ ll get through it. You ’ re clearly tied to Buckden for the foreseeable, what do you think of the village? I love it! I ’ ve lived here for 15 years, I moved here when my daughter was born. Its big enough but small enough and close enough but far enough away if that makes sense. I ’ m not a town person but I love that we ’ re only 10 mins away from a town. There ’ s a great community spirit and it ’ s a beautiful village as well. It ’ s been a fantastic place to raise my daughter and I have no plans to go anywhere else. It ’ s also great for us that as well as a strong local community, we get a lot of passing trade whether that be people coming off the A1 for a pit stop, visitors to the towers and Grafham, passing cyclists etc. I think Buckden should be a destination with all it has to offer and we ’ re lucky having the Vine, George and Lion in such close proximity as it creates a little hospitality ecosystem which is good for us all. Is there anything that you would like to say or ask of the Buckden community? Firstly, a massive thank you for all your support during a pretty crazy 18 months, we really appreciate all the support and en- couragement you ’ ve shown us. Secondly, for anyone that perhaps doesn ’ t have the best per- ception of the Vine, please keep an open mind as we ’ re a new team and we ’ re making a lot of changes. It ’ s going to take a bit of time to do everything we want to do but we ’ ve got lots of exciting plans ahead. Lastly is just a broader ask that as the world starts to open up again and we can all start spreading our wings a bit more, please keep supporting us local businesses in any way that you can. We love this community and want to be here for another 300+ years! The Vine 01480 810 367 facebook.com/thevinebuckden/ (Continued from page 16) As mentioned above, provided it proves to be of interest, ‘ Support our Buckden Businesses ’, will be an ongoing feature. If you are a local business and are interested in being included, please reach out to the Roundabout team via the contact details on page 3.