Vive La France as bistro opens its doors
The Wonderful Hinckley business of the month for April
WHETHER you are browsing the treasure trove of gift boutiques, clothing shops, toy stores or the huge array of cafes, bakeries and restaurants, Hinckley is full of thriving independents.
This month, we settled down to chat with one of Hinckley’s newest arrivals – Petite Chouette Café Bar, a newlyopened French café based on Regent Street.
Run by husband and wife team Paul and Ali Lancaster, the café opened its doors in February, serving a range of delicious French cuisine to delighted residents – expect to find plenty of mouth-watering foods, including croissants, patisseries, cheeses and charcuterie, coffee and wines.
1) What are your names, and how long have you been running for?
Paul and Ali Lancaster, we have been running for six weeks. 2) What’s your typical day like? There isn’t a typical day, every day is different! The day starts with prep for lunch while serving breakfasts. The people are different every day and so is what they order, so no two days are alike.
Then it’s lunch service and, before you know it, you’re at the end of the day and you’re preparing for the next one! We do occasional evenings, such as our Cheese and Wine nights, which have proved really popular too which means a quick trip home, tea for the family and then back to the cafe for the evening.
3) What do you most love about what you do?
Sharing our love of good food and drink with our customers. Cooking for them is a pleasure and it’s so rewarding when you get positive feedback about what you’re doing. 4) What’s your biggest seller? The soup of the day and our assiette de campagne, which is a platter of charcuterie and cheese with pickles, chutney and crackers. All the cheese and meat is sourced from French farms and is the same as used by restaurants such as The River Cafe and the Ledbury in London.
5) What made you decide to start your own business?
It is something we have always wanted to do and we love France, its culture and French cuisine. Paul has worked in the corporate world for 20 years and it was now or never and, having lived in Hinckley for the past 13 years, we wanted to bring a little part of the French culture to our town and to do something we both love.
6) What’s your biggest achievement so far?
Actually opening the cafe in February. We made the decision to go for it and within eight weeks we had opened. Along with this, the feedback from our customers has been overwhelming. It has all been so positive we could not have asked for more, and this really is our biggest achievement, in that people truly enjoy the food we make and the service we provide.
7) What’s your advice for someone wanting to start their own business? We would say go for it. Life is too short! However, you must do something you love as it does take over your life!
Also, make sure you do your research, and do a comprehensive business plan.
8) What’s your favourite thing about Hinckley?
We love Hinckley, it is such a closeknit community and we have so many independent shops and businesses here, it is really encouraging to be part of a great and ever growing town.
9) Tell us something we wouldn’t know about you…
Ali is a twin and her father is a master baker, and her grandparents owned a bakery in Kirkham, a little village outside Blackpool in Lancashire. She once stalked Bruce Forsyth in Marbella!
Ali loves dance music, and once got locked in Cream in Liverpool with Paul Oakenfold. Ali is very determined and never gives up, in fact she learnt to juggle in one night! Ali loves to travel and also loves cuckoo clocks and owls (but you probably knew that already).
Paul originally comes from Cumbria where, historically, his family lived in the cottage from the cult movie Withnail and I! At 18 he joined the RAF and since then has done a variety of different jobs including flower arranging and more signifi- cantly, a chef’s job at Murrayfield and running a kitchen in Edinburgh city centre, where he discovered his love of cooking.
Despite his love of travelling, he has absolutely no sense of direction, and got lost on his first night living in Edinburgh and had to ring Ali for directions, despite the fact that she had not yet moved to the city. 10) Where can people find you? 7 Regent Street Hinckley @petitechouettecafebar Tel: 07505 478518 Website to follow when we get a spare moment!