Couldn't have imagined it

I've been pretty quiet for a while, not because I don't love you, it's none of that, but I've just been busy - I've built a beach and I've been busy making sure that Oxfordshire people can't be in any doubt that The Oxford Castle Quarter is cool - not just cool on an Oxford level, but international, sensationally cool.

Tonight we've had live beachside Jazz, see the photo below

A few days ago we had the Copenhagen Brass Band and we've had silent Disco Beach Parties, we've had stay and play groups, we've had circuits, we've had oodles of stuff and there's oodles more to come.

You may have read about the Oxford Beach in the Independent, The Guardian, The BBC, The Times, or any of the local media, or maybe heard it on BBC Radio Oxford or Jack FM, but either way, Summer don't last too long, so come along and sample the BBQ, get some cocktails and see that we're more than just Bangers & Mash.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Beach - when I was a kid, I couldn't make up my mind about whether I wanted to be a musician, whether I wanted to have a restaurant, or whether I just wanted to be a beach-bum, well, tonight I've accomplished all 3, and I couldn't have imagined that it would feel even half as cool as this does. I can't wait to share it with as many of you as possible.

Before I took a tenancy in the Oxford Castle Quarter, as an Oxfordshire resident, I hadn't been to the Oxford Castle Quarter for 6years, and I didn't expect that there was anything there that I wanted, but now I can tell you, with authority, that it's an amazing place - Do come and see it 

Max

Feeling Chuffed

If I'd had a sausage for everyone who told me I was a burk to open a Sausage & Mash restaurant 9years ago, I'd only be slightly slimmer than if I had a sausage for every time I recognised pity every time I told someone I was moving The Big Bang from the rubble of Jericho to the Oxford Castle Quarter.

Ghost town, they said, chain restaurants, bad reputation, nobody goes there.... well, last night, I can very happily report we had our busiest ever day in 9year - We served 430 people in total. (In simpler terms, that's nine bags of Oxfordshire spuds, the equivalent of a bathtub brimming with sausagemeat (no horse!) and three witches cauldrons full of gravy (regular size cauldron)

I'm not gloating, because I still have no idea whether this move is a sensible one or not, but I'm delighted that my team are rising to the challenge, are able to serve that many people without losing their cool.

What's more, we've had some splendid reviews... we're still not recognised on TripAdvisor as a recommended Oxford eatery, despite already having become Oxford's 100th Favourite Restaurant, in 4 short months. I'd ask that anyone who has a good time here throws a couple of kind words our way, either on TripAdvisor or on something more fabulous and local like Daily Info or Oxford City Guide so we can start to regain some of the nine years of hard work that we'd built up.... or just drop me a line, I'd always be delighted to hear feedback, good or bad.

Anyway, we're enjoying being back, we're looking forward to the warmer months when Bangers & Mash becomes BBQ & Beers and we've got an amazing lineup of Bangers & Live music over the coming months. Thanks for appreciating us I guess

Fun Filled February

After a pretty fabulous January, we're kicking the Oxford Castle Quarter rather hard at the moment to make the most of February - Live jazz each Tuesday, a full menu of Great British dishes, a cider launch with the Rabbit Foot Spasm band, a charity 'build a banger' competition and our regular slew of crewdates on a weekly basis.

We're having fun, enjoying the fact that people are happy to have us back in business in Oxford, back  on form and having more fun than ever - It seems the tricky decision to open within the Castle Quarter was the right one and we're seeing some very happy diners.

We've teamed up with Helen & Douglas House to devise a Build a Banger competition, asking submissions from Sausage Lovers everywhere - What would you like to see in a sausage? If your sausage selection gets chosen, it will be featured on the menu for a full month and £1 from each dish of them sold will go to the charity. Email submissions to me, entitled "Build a Banger".

We've actually decided that any remarkable event from the calendar should have a commemorative sausage created, so if there's an event that you know of, let us know and we can get working on a sausage - This past week has seen Haggis, pork & black pudding, Duck, hoisin & spring onion and Full English breakfast sausages to celebrate special days - Let's keep them exciting!

In addition to those, our menu now boasts Sunday roasts, full English breakfasts, cream teas, Great British classics and also our regular sausage and mash selection. We have oodles of space, so do come, use the WIFI and just hang out until you get peckish, we'd be happy to see you.

This Saturday we have the first of our extra music nights, continuing a theme we've long loved at Sausage HQ - The Rabbit Foot Spasm Band will be performing as they launch their brand new Cider - tickets for £7 (the few that are left!) can be bought from wegottickets and if you require food or a table, you'll need to get in touch with us!

Tuesday jazz continues to be popular, with each Tuesday selling out nicely - We've currently got just a couple of spaces left for Ben Holder on 12th, so if you want to catch him, you'd better be quick.

Nothing else for now, keep well

Max

Future Bookings Policy

An open letter to those planning to make party bookings:

You should never really write these things when you're miffed, but it's quite a depressing day when one is forced to restrict the way one operates a business because of repeated customer insensitivity to your situation.

We have always trusted people to turn up to bookings, with a hope of a recognition that, in a very difficult economy, we are having to put on extra staff and buy in extra food, and cancel other bookings so that we can accommodate the larger ones.

So, each time we have a major cancellation, it's upsetting - Clearly some are perfectly understandable, but on an evening when 3 big reservations of tables cancel at the very last minute, it leaves us with rather a costly situation and 100 seats empty - something that an independent restaurant can not afford to stomach.

So, I regret that from this moment forward we will be taking a card number for each reservation to ensure the booking. We will establish the following procedure;

If the party cancels within 48 hours of the allotted reservation time we will take £5 per person as compensation.

If the total number of the party is reduced by 25% or more then we will take £3 per person for every person not in attendance.

If the party damage the restaurant or refuse to maintain order then we shall take a bond of £50, after the leader of a party are warned twice to act in a more responsible manner.

We do our level best to accommodate all parties and are delighted that The Big Bang is a restaurant where student parties sit alongside parties of tourists and locals, but it is reliant upon the major bookings realising that they are acting as ambassadors for their respective student bodies and if they don't have the maturity to act appropriately, then we have to devise ways to ensure they do, or ask them to dine elsewhere.

In ten years of business I've never had to do this, it's something I've tried hard to avoid, because I think people should be trusted with the maturity to treat us the way we try to treat them.

A sad day, Max

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

New Year - 2013 - Year of the Sausage

We had a busy Christmas period, admittedly we weren't on our finest game, but we had a lot of people who now know where the restaurant is and will hopefully come and see us when we're not flying around like a headless sausage.
Staffing is always an issue in a place like this, you can't afford to do what the chains do and recruit and train hundreds of people, you have to make the decision to either employ nice people and then train them to carry plates, or employ trained and tired waiters and train them to give a damn, I always opt for the first option, but it can sometimes make things tricky during those early months!

So, 2013, our resolutions are to give the very best service in Oxford, to have staff who actually care, and who aren't serving you from some laminated instructions from Head Office, but who are truly being Hospitable, we are in the hospitality industry after all.
We aim to give the best coffees and needless to say best sausagey based, Great British meal in Oxford, one which supports as many local farmers, brewers, vintners and vegetable growers, prisons and colleges as possible and we'll do it with continued style.

I, for one, can't wait for the sun to start to shine, as our Courtyard area will form the most amazing place ever seen in Oxford for when Bangers & Mash gives way to Barbeque and Beers!

Happy New Year, we hope to see you whenever you would normally have been going to a chain restaurant in 2013.

Max

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!