INSIDE THE WALLS OF MANCHESTER’S MOST EXCLUSIVE RESTAURANT
DAISY JACKSON TALKS TO EDDIE SHEPHERD WHO RUNS HIS HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL THE WALLED GARDENS AT HIS OWN HOME
THERE aren’t many restaurants in the world quite like Whalley Range’s The Walled Gardens. It’s vegetarian, it has only one member of staff (its founder and head chef Eddie Shepherd), seats only eight at a time and is inside Eddie’s own house.
The other thing that sets it apart is its phenomenal success - prepandemic, you’d be waiting upwards of six months to get a seat at this world-renowned table.
Running such an unusual business also presents its own unique challenges though, especially in a year as taxing on the hospitality trade as 2020 has been.
Eddie has battled solo the lockdowns, the wasted stock, the cancelled bookings - and the Government’s haphazard communication style that has created ‘turmoil’ for millions.
He says of the Government: “They obviously don’t understand hospitality at all.
“Even things like the announcement on tiers coming on a Thursday morning, ahead of the weekend.
“That’s what’s forced restaurants into the position of gambling on being open or not - its not enough time to turn around and change your plan.
“If they understood hospitality, they would announce things like that on a Monday or Tuesday.
“The way throughout the year they’ve announced things at the last minute, especially the changes in restrictions we’ve had in Manchester that have been so lastminute and the way things are leaked, it’s infuriating.
“As a business I’ve been able to weather stuff thanks to my incredibly supportive guests. But personally, it’s just emotionally and psychologically turmoil.
“The number of times this year that I’ve been going to bed not knowing if my business will be open or closed or able to function the next day.
“To be constantly put in that position of waiting to hear whether you have a job or a career or not, it’s horrible.”
Eddie thinks that there are big improvements that need to be made in the way that new measures are communicated to those working in the industry, and is backing widespread calls for a Minister for Hospitality.
He also thinks it’s important for the public, who have repeatedly had plans ‘ripped away from them’ at the eleventh hour all year.
Eddie spent 15 years cooking in traditional restaurants before launching his own venture around five years ago.
His underground restaurant serves a vegetarian tasting menu to only eight guests each night.
The Walled Gardens has been named as one of the best restaurants in Britain by The Guardian, nominated by Eddie’s friend and fellow chef Mary-Ellen McTague, of The Creameries.
“It’s my favourite thing I’ve ever done, to be perfectly honest,” he says. “When it’s open, it feels fantastic. I get to make everything exactly how I want to make it and introduce dishes to the guest - it feels very personal.”
The Walled Gardens, despite its unconventional business model, follows the same rules as restaurants. It means it was able to reopen in July, but also means it’s felt the full force of Greater Manchester’s local lockdown, the tier restrictions, the curfew and the second national lockdown.
Eddie is also self-employed, so hasn’t qualified for the same Government funding as many others in his industry.
He says: “Manchester’s had these extra restrictions placed on it bit by bit.
“I don’t usually get cancellations, I’m usually booked up six months in advance, and I was getting cancellations in a way I’ve never seen before.
“Up until November it felt like it was going great.”
Eddie was getting ready to reopen this weekend, hoping for a drop to Tier 2 for Greater Manchester.
“Because I’m on my own here, I can only really plan for one set of things - I can’t do takeaway and open in a normal way, I have to pick one thing to focus on.
“Manchester’s numbers looked promising and I wanted to open.
“I prepared food, bought in ingredients with the plan of opening this weekend, obviously with the thought in the back of my head that it wasn’t a certainty.
“I tried to think about what I could reuse if I wasn’t able to open, but it’s still gutting to get the news.
“Some stuff I can repurpose, some produce will go to local food charities like EatWellMCR. Anything I can’t find a use for I’ll send that way.”
The toll all the uncertainty has taken on people’s mental health has been widely discussed in the sector.
Eddie says: “In the first lockdown I didn’t think about this stuff enough. I adapted to takeaway and just kept going. It didn’t occur to me that I needed to look after myself too.
“With that constant background stress it’s so easy to let your physical and mental health slip.”
He also has beehives - he produces his own honey - and says that that was a huge help through the summer months.
“I’m really lucky that I get to really live what I do,” he says.
“For an awful lot of chefs, it’s more than just a job - it’s their passion, their social group, their interest.
“You have to find something that keeps you connected to that part of
your identity, despite your daily job being taken away.
“When we can start to get hospitality back in a consistent way, the bounce back is going to be really enthusiastic.
“I don’t just miss the job, and the income, I genuinely miss cooking for people and interacting with people.
“Having that to look forward to on the horizon is a nice thing.”
While Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted that life may be able to begin to return to normal by Easter, it’s a milestone that’s a long way away for people whose businesses are in limbo, like Eddie.
“January and February I think everyone expects to be worse,” Eddie says, “So if we can’t get open now it’s not unrealistic to think we might not open until early spring.
“That means we’ll potentially be closed from the start of November until March.
“It’s one thing not to be open for a short amount of time, but if you look at a block of time like that, four or five months, it’s a big chunk.
“I hope that doesn’t happen, but it feels like you have to have that worst case scenario in your head.”
For every Government u-turn and last-minute announcement comes a scramble to contact all those who have made bookings at The Walled Gardens.
Meals at the restaurant are paid for in advance, which could have left Eddie with a lot of money to return to guests all at once.
He says he’s been ‘extremely lucky’ that the majority of customers have asked to move their bookings rather than have refunds, giving him the safety net of a full restaurant when he is allowed to welcome them back.
“It could have been a really difficult position, financially,” he says. “I’m aware that even though I haven’t had Government support I’m in really quite a good position.
“I don’t have the overheads of rent, I don’t have staff to pay, so I haven’t had some of those stresses others have had. In the first lockdown it was a real panic, but throughout the year people have been so consistently and incredibly understanding and supportive.
“People seem to have a real appetite to get out there and help local businesses, and that’s great.”