2013, Year of the Sausage

 Happy New Year, we're calling 2013 the Year of the Sausage - This'll be my only long post of the year, but it's kind of a resolutions post, so I figure I'm allowed!

Bangers & Mash, Barbecues & Beer:

It's the year when we settle into our new home and spread our wings as Sausageers - Since I opened the place 9years ago in Jericho, I've known that I really want to have a place that's Bangers & Mash in Winter and Barbecue & Beers in summer. There's no better place for that in Oxford than the Castle Quarter, with our massive forecourt area.

From Mayday onwards, starting with a major MayDay morning feast, we'll be having Barbecues whenever the weather is good enough, celebrating that other great institution of the British culinary calendar, the Summer BBQ.

A Hesitant Start:

Looking back, I'm afraid to say I have an admission to make, we were a bit useless, between opening and the New Year. I had to make a decision when we opened, to either employ waiting staff who knew the job, but didn't really care about the Customer's experience, or to employ nice people and train them from scratch, but know that they'd care about whether you had a good experience. 

Well, I chose the second, I don't believe we're in the catering 'business', we are in Hospitality, and it's a huge difference. I don't believe that many of the restaurants on the High Street today are hospitable, I think they're more interested in upselling, in making their margins and in ensuring that the spreadsheet works, my thought is that if you're good enough at being hospitable, the rest should follow.

I'm happy to report that as soon as the New Year broke, staff began to understand what The abig Bang was about and started to realise they were being hospitable, not following instructions - I feel confident now that everyone visiting will have a pretty splendid experience.

However, If your experience isn't up to scratch, we'd always welcome comments and feedback, but similarly, if you have a good experience, we'd happily take any good comments, ideally on some forum as visible as TripAdvisor, weirdly, after 8years of hard work, all of our reviews and any web presence was devoured by our move to the Castle Quarter. Without a major marketing budget, it's the only way to get people to know about you, so we'd always welcome s nice review.

Big Bang Pigs: 

Last year we started serving up vegetables grown by prisoners at SpringHill Farm prison, this season we have our own piglets roaming around their perimeter fence, ready to become our sausages early in Spring - Keep an eye out for them popping up on twitter and Facebook (Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook) 

Jazz & Sing for your Sausages: 

We have a stunning season of Jazz lined up each Tuesday night, check it out on the website, see what you fancy.

And, if you're any good at tinkling the ivories, come and have a play on a Monday night, when we'll swap some good piano-work for meals and drinks, depending upon how good you are! 

Other stuff:

New menu hits the streets on Monday, with pineapple & cheese on sticks as a starter, more cracking Great British pudds and some cream teas, so you don't have to pay the exorbitant price tags elsewhere!  Our Sunday Roasts and our Friday Fish & chips are becoming rightfully appreciated and we're becoming known as a place which sympathises and understands allergies, so come along if you've got a dietary need or two, we'd be delighted to feed you, safely. Check out the Menu

So, 2013 is going to be a tricky year, but we aim to bring the Oxford Castle Quarter back to form & show what a spectacular corner of Oxford it is, we'll always have a good meal at the right price, no matter how gloomy the economy gets!

Happy 2013, Year of the Sausage