Getting Mullered

Some exciting stuff is afoot in The Oxford Castle Quarter - Yes, it's British Sausage Week and Yes, we've been awarded the highest accolade for ethical operations in Britain, three stars from the Sustainable Restaurant Association, but it's the mulled wine that I'm talking about.

If you've a booking at The Big Bang over the coming weeks or months, try to arrive an hour early, if you're able, and drop in next door where I'm running a mulled wine bar, called Mullered, between now and Christmas.

There are going to be other things going on, including a Deli (more details tomorrow) a Popup Christmas Market and a nightspot, but for now, if you're in town and you're cold, or if you're headed to Sausage HQ, then drop in to Mullered and get some of the best mulled wine that money can buy.

Come and be part of bringing the Castle back to life, reclaiming it as a part of Oxford for us!

Happy Sausage Week - Here's to the Great British Banger

To showcase the Great British Banger this British Sausage Week, here's a video of all we do at The Big Bang - There'll be lots more coming this week, including some of our most unusual sausages ever & a splendid partnership with 'Mullered', a brand new wine bar opened up next door!

Hope to see you some time this week

http://vimeo.com/52807071

Happy Sausaging

No Bangers tonight

If you're standing in the cold, shivering outside the Big Bang and wondering why on earth the lights are off, then I have to apologise to you.

I've taken my staff for a Christmas Dinner with our friends at The Oxford Blue (You should try it some time!)

They've worked tirelessly over the last 2 months to resurrect The Big Bang from the rubble of Walton Street and have made this corner of Oxford Castle our own. We have a full restaurant near every night and are receiving a resounding chorus that we're a welcome re-addition to the Oxford catering scene.

I've taken them out for dinner to mark the end of our teething period - If you don't get what you've ordered from now on in, if you wait too long or don't get the experience you expect from The Big Bang, then prod us, poke us, tell us and make sure we're doing it right!

Once tonight is over, we'll be open 7 days a week from 10am to 11pm and serving breakfast, lunches, dinners, Great British feasts and sterling Sunday roasts, pastries and cracking locally roasted coffees.
Our wifi is Ferrari fast and free, without any restrictions and our Christmas meals commence in 14 days  - at the very best price in Oxford.

If that wasn't enough, then a Mulled Wine bar will be opening next door, a Christmas Supermarket and a Popup restaurant, along with a quiet nightspot for the more discerning customer. We'd love you to come say Hullo!

In the meantime, I'm wishing my staff a Happy early Christmas, Max

Just like nature's 'The Big Bang' - Things happen fast

Someone, somewhere clearly thinks that letting me PLAY is a good idea, that bringing some fun to the Oxford Castle Quarter is long overdue - It's amongst the most stunning parts of Oxford and yet, when I lived in Jericho, I didn't bother to visit it, because I was sure there wasn't anything much to visit there.

I need to tell you that it's changed over just the last few days, that the Oxford Castle Quarter is now the very heart of your City, with not only The Big Bang, but also a Popup Christmas Super-Market, a Mulled wine bar and perhaps even a popup restaurant from time to time. And you're the first to know it, so don't tell a soul....

Winter Light Night will see a Polar Bear roaming around the Castle Yard in front of the Big Bang and live music will pepper the calendar between now and the New Year.

If you've not yet been, it's time to rediscover the Castle Quarter and see what fun we're having down here. You'll fall for it, I guarantee

An American in Sausage Heaven

Introducing the wonderful Betsy Masson's verdict on our Great British Cuisine, as a complete newcomer! It's priceless.....

Bangers and Mash

There is an entire language of food in England that I have discovered.
We went to a new restaurant in our castle grounds (we have now been to
almost all of the restaurants in the Oxford Castle grounds –note
earlier comments about the Krispy Kreme shop for coffee and the Swan
and Castle for our earliest meals of fish and chips and all have been
really quite unique and excellent in their own ways), which only
opened two weeks ago called The Big Bang and were introduced to the
world of bangers and mash.

Actually we had walked over to peer into The Big Bang a few days ago,
carrying a box of pizza leftovers, and were greeted by Max (owner) 
who popped out and handed us a newspaper to cover our pizza
box- it was raining so I wasn’t sure if he was worried about a wet
pizza or wanted us to realize that we should hide a pizza box when
walking past an authentic English bangers and mash restaurant. I read
the newspaper from cover to cover- all 4 pages of it - and realized I
had no idea what most of the food in the menu (2 of the 4 pages) was!
So we went back for breakfast and Max very kindly sat with us and gave
me a vocabulary, history, and culinary set of lessons about English
food.

Let me start with “mash.” Apparently a mash begins with mashed
potatoes and then can be expanded from there. Max spoke with great
admiration for the English potato - it apparently sits in the ground
for 8 months, absorbing water and various underground flavors (dirt,
bugs, appropriate composts?), and then is dug up and becomes the
central component of any mash. Just as we might add cheese, garlic, or
sour cream to our mashed potatoes, the mash over here has a far
greater range of possibilities and seems to be a fairly central staple
of English food. For example, there is the simple creamed mash (most
like ours I suspect), the garlic and rosemary mash, the grain mustard
mash, the spring onion mash, the rose mash (beets and red cabbage
added), or the celeriac (fabulous word- almost religious in tone) mash
(celery root mashed and added). All mashes are accompanied by gravies,
which also have a range of possibilities, including red wine gravy,
stilton gravy (Isn’t stilton a cheese? How does that work?), rosemary
gravy, or vegetable gravy. It has occurred to me that with only a week
left here and given there are twenty different bangers and mashes on
the menu, I need to immediately go and order a meal of just mashes-
maybe a bowl of each kind with a small pot of each of the gravies.
Sounds like heaven.

But that leads me to the bangers or sausages on this menu. I asked Max
why a sausage is called a banger. I believe his answer (by this time I
was taking notes, and Max was leaping up to greet every customer, chat
a bit, then return to me and my questions, and within a few minutes,
off again, so I was both delighted to have such an incredibly helpful
source of information but quite discombobulated by the intermittent
flow of the details) was about the poor quality of sausage meat during
the war (important note- apparently “the war” refers to World War II,
while the “great war” is World War I—I think- remember, Max is moving
at high speed now about the restaurant and since I am old- my mind
doesn’t catch every detail these days) so when the bangers were
cooked, the higher content of water in them (I think) caused them to
explode “bang” and they became known as bangers. And if that somehow
isn’t correct, I think it sounds awfully good so I will just stay with
it. So bangers are a whole vast array of sausages. Some at the Big
Bang include Welsh pork and leek sausages, lamb and mint sausages,
wild venison sausages, basil and vine tomato sausages, wild boar and
pigeon sausages, stilton and walnut sausages and about 15 other
choices. His menu is totally entertaining to read- he has something
called the Cheapskate Sausage with a note- “2 less delicious sausages
with a simple mash”. Why would one buy this? I have no idea but the
English have a very strange sense of humor. Or his Wild Boar and
Pigeon Sausage comes with the note, “Don’t even ask, just be brave and
try them out.”

The bangers and mash were only the tip of the iceberg in this food
language lesson. When Max first sat down, I asked if I could ask a few
questions and my first was from the first item on the menu- "What are
“boiled eggs and soldiers”? OK, the “boiled eggs” I could guess,
except we are talking soft boiled, not hard-boiled. But the “soldiers”
refer to toast cut in triangles to dip in the egg yolk, and apparently
this is even a bit controversial- the toast is either thin cut or
thick cut (depending on the individual) with a bit of butter but not
melted butter or it will drip into the egg—you see where I am going
with this.  I mean really, who has time for this kind of angst over
eggs and toast. I guess if one lives on an island with only 15 minutes
of news (repeated on SkyNews in 15 minute loops for 24 hours every
day), boiled eggs and thickness of toast becomes important. Then after
we ordered our breakfast of two eggs (bright orange yolks again),
sausages, a rasher of bacon (no idea what a rasher is but it means two
rounds of a ham like food), baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, 1/2 a
sauteed tomato, and triangles of toast (I guess ready for any dipping
we might do), Max mentioned that we might like some "marmite." Marmite
comes in a little tiny plastic pack, much like a butter pack, and is
apparently spread on toast by individuals who have some highly
developed masochistic tendencies. This stuff was AWFUL!!! It is brown
and gooey and tastes like a combination of boiled down Worcestershire
sauce, cider vinegar, maybe mustard, and possibly other ingredients I
was unable to taste because I was so horrified by what was in my
mouth. Once I recovered, the rest of the breakfast was fabulous.

Then there is the Bubble and Squeak. I am REALLY unclear what this is
but it has to do with frying together all your leftovers from
Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas and
is apparently a VERY important holiday here, because it is an official
day off from employment so that everyone can either go shopping or fox
hunt (checked in Wikipedia on that detail). So the Bubble and Squeak
has mashed potatoes as its base and then I suppose whatever vegetables
are traditionally eaten on Christmas day, fried to a crisp golden and
served with cold beef or turkey.

Another menu uncertainty was the Toad in the Hole. Again this is
something with sausages in a batter and fried. Why any food eaten by
humans is purposely called a Toad in the Hole was never explained (by
now Max was moving at supersonic speeds greeting and chatting) so I
had to simply remain in the dark on this detail. And I might add from
a personal point of view that any food item that has “toad” in its
name remains seriously suspect, given how I feel about toads!
Unfortunately, the night we went to try out the dinner menu, the Toad
in the Hole was not being served, so we made do with Shepherd’s Pie, a
ground meat thing with baked mashed potatoes on top. Mom used to make
this, so I had to give this one a 9.5 as compared to Mom’s 10, but it
was quite delicious.

So, the English’s rather strange sense of humor, combined with living
on a small island for several thousand years, has created a truly
interesting culinary vocabulary that actually is almost childlike in
its appeal. It begins to explain how Harry Potter and the Rabbit Hole
can arise from such wonderful, odd imaginations.

Live Jazz & Bangers & a few too many customers

When I opened The New Big Bang in the Oxford Castle Quarter, I was pretty reassured that not many people would visit us in our opening few weeks, but I admit that I was wrong..... very wrong!

We have fed over 150 mouths every day for the past 2 weeks, 97.9% of them happily - admittedly, a few of them had the wrong sausages, but what can I say? They all look the same when they're cooked, particularly when you're employing brand new catering staff!

I have always said that you can teach a nice person to be a waiter, but try making a coldhearted waiter into a nice person! Much more difficult. So, occasionally, we have made a couple of mistakes, but we've done it with ever such nice people and they've felt truly sorry. Within a week, we'll be On Fire.

We had our first Jazz Night last Tuesday, and will be having them each and every Tuesday, but for now, here's a video that the genius Chris from @OxfordMediaFactory filmed during the evening.

Come and say Hi when you're able and put us in your diary for a Christmas Party (From 20th November) of for Winter Light Night (23rd November) or just drop in when you're next in town - We're literally 20 seconds beyond the West Gate.

Jazzing Up the Castle

It's now been a week and moss doesn't grow on a rolling stone, so here's something more.... as if getting to grips with this behemoth wasn't enough to cope with.

As of next Tuesday, we're operating our first weekly Jazz night - The opener is going to be a belter, so come along if you can.  We'll be doing the first night at a real bargain - £5 surcharge for Jazz, refunded if you spend £15 on your meal - A little bit crazy, but what better way to start?

Ben Holder at Oxford Jazz Festival by Jo Cox

Ben Holder, Jezz Cook and Paul Jefferies will be playing in the restaurant from 8pm and we only have a limited number of seats, but do a spot of googlying and see just how good they are.  Ben is guaranteed to give you one of the most entertaining nights of live music you'll ever see in Oxford - I can guarantee it!

It kicks off a whole year of Live Jazz, in a series called "Discover the Quarter Jazz Nights" - They'll be a weekly series of jazz throughout the year, ensuring that you can now regard the Oxford Castle Quarter as a place where stuff happens - I'm here to ensure it.




Hope to see you, bookings through any of the normal means, or 01865 249413.

The amazing mr Ben Holder

Did I ever imagine....?

Surely, I realised when I saw that 300,000 people had been 'reached' through Facebook (whatever that means), that 500 people were already following @BigBangOx on twitter and that the local media was buzzing with news about the re-opening of The Big Bang, that we'd get a few people coming down to see what the fuss was all about.

But when, last night, with four brand new members of staff, with no working oven, no working till system (teething problems!), and no lift to take the food between the kitchen and the restaurant, that we'd have a teensy issue with maintaining our calm.

The Old Bang, now neatly laid to rest!

Needless to say, the loyal Big Bang Sausageers were ever so kind, when we brought them the wrong sausages, 20minutes late, but I have to admit that we had a real humdinger of a night, one which we won't be repeating for a long time.

So, tonight, we have a diary full of bookings, not one, but two working lifts, nicely trained staff, a kitchen heaving with food and eager chefs. We have an oven and we can't wait for the night to start - it's a long weekend ahead and we hope to see you!

Bang On!

First Night finished

I'm used to living by the seat of my pants, but this morning at 0958, when, disgracefully hungover, we finally flung open the doors to the new Big Bang, I discovered a fear that previously lay untapped - Going from a building site, into which I'd poured every penny I had, to a fully functioning restaurant on a much bigger scale than I've ever experienced.

The first customers arrived at 1013 and had a cup of UE Coffee, hand-roasted in Witney with wood felled from Blenheim Palace.... they were impressed. Their breakfasts arrived some 9 minutes later and their smiles broadened even further. Yes, we forgot minor details like cutlery, our ovens still don't work, many of my staff have never worked in catering before, the tills are a more confusingly advanced IPad system than anywhere outside San Francisco.... and yet we were serving great food and drink, with Big Bang panache in our brand new home.  Even through the hangover, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

It's now closing time, we had a restaurant near full of customers, many rekindling an old Love affair, many others brand new, who have always heard about The Big Bang, but had never had a chance to visit.

Our menu is much bigger and braver, do Have a shufty online! But we're managing it, and everyone tonight seems to have loved it - We had a full house and the book is filling up for the next few months and our Christmas Dinner (priced from only £15!)

Come on down, see what we've done with the place - We intend to put the Oxford Castle back at the heart of Oxford

Job Done!

Wow, I have no photos yet, but I can provide concrete proof, at 2am after our opening party, that when 700 people say they will be coming along, they really mean it - We had Oxford Culture Vultures, we had the Dons of Oxford, we had the North Oxford Mums, we had artists, we had cycling steampunkers, we had pissheads and we had devout sausageers!

All in all, we had a group of folk who dearly loved the old place, yet feel, quite honestly, that the new place replaces all of the fine aspects of the old and adds a million new splendid touches - We'd love the rest of you to come along, and to feel the same way

For now, Bed, a day off and then an early start to Monday - I think we can safely say we came back with a Bang! Max

Last Night 'off'!

It's 1am on the morning of what will be our opening party and I wanted to share a bit of the excitement of heading into today, combined with the weariness of having worked flat out to produce what I believe will be the very best restaurant in Oxford (with apologies to Monsieur Blanc!).

Best of British

I hope that we will have combined all of the fun from the old place, without the crappy loos, in essence. This new place has more heart, more potential, and a more central position. Everyone thus far who has seen it has only good words to say for it, but maybe they're just being nice, because they realise I'd currently collapse if they said anything bad.

Swanky new floor

Later today, hopefully after a little fitful sleep, I only have to organise another 20 or so tasks, then the rest happens. One of my guiding principles in life is that you HAVE to enjoy a party that you host, otherwise why endure the spend and the stress? So, before that time, we need a floor, some more beer.... in fact a local beer chilling system and some of Oxfordshire's best beers, we need a till system, we need 8,000 sausages cooked (Yes, 8,000!) and we need the mash to go with it, so that entails a lot of baking, boiling, peeling, cutting, mashing and hard work.

The Sign finally hoisted

It'll be a night to remember, and I hope it will be the night when Oxfordshire learnt to make the Castle Quarter their own - I believe we have the best possible position in Oxford with the biggest courtyard, the best design and the finest menu - And the Maitre'D isn't too bad either!

For the past 8years we've not really rammed the ethics of the place down your throat, but hopefully those who have followed the story closely will realise it's all built on pretty solid ethics - I trust that they are more visible and more intelligently explained, now we have a suitable building from which to do so.

About the most important lunch you can imagine

Aaaah, that's enough - it's time for bed. One last thing, everyone today seemed to want to know whether I was nervous, and I answered "No" each and every time. I have the best menu, the finest, sweetest and most hard working staff in both kitchen and restaurant, I have the best looking website and restaurant thanks to some amazing work behind the scene by my FashionHack and her family of designers and clever brains and we're going to make it work incredibly well, from tomorrow you should be in possession of a new clear favourite Oxford restaurant.

Good Night

On the brink of opening - Scary & Exciting

Another ramble from me.... but I think it's an important one, which includes what we're all about - It is the brink of the week when The Big Bang makes its reappearance on the Oxford scene - We have grown at a terrifying rate, as eight year olds always seem to. Our new home, which I'm hoping you'll come to get a look at over the coming week or two, is much larger, much more central and holds much more potential than our much loved Jericho home, from the past eight years. It's a place which has never been fully embraced by Oxford, but I feel it's time to do so. It has so much potential, so much history and a wealth of character that you can't match anywhere else in the City. With The Big Bang sitting at the heart of it, I feel you now have a Castle Quarter to be truly proud of, and I hope I can count on your support.

We've had a VIP lunch on Wednesday (for some of Britain's most influential tour party operators, I'm never one to start the easy way), then I'm inviting everyone, and I really mean everyone, you included, for an opening night party from 7:30pm on Saturday 29th September. No entry charge, just come down and see what we've done - I'll be putting a couple of free drinks on the bar (as few as I can get away with), doing my best to bring out nibbles throughout the evening and having a cheap bar, even if it's not free, to welcome you to our new place and try to ensure that you regard it as the new heart of Oxford. 

I have to admit, in this quiet moment before the storm, that I'm quite nervous. It's a terrific challenge, one that I am delighted by the prospect of, but I have no misconceptions about how hard we are going to have to work, to make this your favourite new Oxford restaurant, yet we have lots of history on our side - People seem to like what we do, and I believe we've just grown all that you love and transported it to a better place.

I'd like to recruit your help, if I may; if you dine here and don't like anything you experience, or just think we can do something a bit better, or even you just want to send us a compliment and tell us we're travelling in roughly the right direction, then please drop me a line, stop me and chat.  I'm adamant that the only way to ensure you come here, as opposed to a chain restaurant, is by ensuring we're offering you a home from home, a place for reassuring, unpretentious, local, ethically sourced, affordable and fun food, in a tremendous atmosphere, in what I believe is the smartest courtyard and finest restaurant in Oxford. 


Please take our Big Bang newspapers away and share them with schools, colleges and shops around Oxfordshire, tell friends about us, recommend us, think of bringing folks to see us when they visit Oxford, and we'll do our best to give you everything you want in return.  In this economy, our promise to you, in return, is that we'll always stay as affordable as we can. We will always source from the most interesting array of Oxfordshire suppliers, so you can always rest assured that you are supporting the components of this county which most need it and when you fancy a Great British, as opposed to an Indian or a Chinese meal, we'll be there, turning out the greatest British classics we can.

I keenly look forward to hearing your thoughts, and to seeing you all shortly

Max

Some mouthwatering images to tempt you...

Photography: Greg Blatchford 

Coming Back with a Bang!

Eight years ago, I nervously signed a tenancy agreement on a tatty building which was meant to be reduced to rubble some five months later, it seemed like a fun idea, and so was born the rollercoaster ride which was The Big Bang - based on some pretty solid ethical principles, but all geared around the unpretentious enjoyment of our greatest British Dish, Sausage & Mash. 

Now, a full eight years later, I'm about to sign again, but more excitedly, with a greater number of noughts at stake, but safer in the knowledge that people have thoroughly enjoyed what we've done over the past eight years, and that the Great British Brand is more popular now than ever. Secondly that people are ready more now than ever before, for a restaurant which offers great, ethical, local food at a good price. We're coming back with a Bang!

I'm aware that if I were sensible, I'd admit that I may not have enough time to commit to a blog, but also that this will be a ride along which many people will want to accompany us - We're going to be doing some exciting things, getting into some innovative partnerships and encouraging your involvement majorly along the way - I'd love to be building a true Oxfordshire restaurant, including as many Oxfordshire folk as we can and this has to be the best way of inviting you to accompany me from the start. 

For those who may have thought that our menu was too limited or our restaurant was too scruffy, you'll be impressed.  The new Big Bang will have a fantastic broad menu which serenades Great British ingredients, demonstrating where we're able how much you are supporting your local farmers and not contributing towards the balance sheet of some multinational chain restaurant. I'm delighted to report that our new home is set within the very heart of the Oxford Castle Quarter, where a Carluccio's used to be. It's a fabulous place, with enough space for us to enjoy all of what we did before, but now with a huge kitchen within which we can offer full English breakfasts, all Great British classics, brunches, Sunday roasts and even outdoor catering from, and even a courtyard where wintry Bangers & Mash can become spectacular summery Barbeques and Beers.

The Big Bang has been absent for a year, but I've taken time to find the perfect premises and know that you'll be impressed, just ensure that the next time you go out for dinner that instead of the restaurant you've been tolerating for the past year, come to a new one that you'll hopefully embrace as your new favourite.  Through this blog, I'll be taking you through the process from signing the tenancy agreement, to developing partnerships, through searching for new local suppliers and encouraging your advice and hearing your findings, to opening the doors, welcoming your feedback and driving towards the long winter ahead. 


Max