Home Grown (Reading) Chicken

It’s Not Arthur’s…It’s Yours

This is probably a Michael Cain moment, in that “not a lot of people know that”.

I just thought I would take a minute to champion a local Reading business which stretches nationally and internationally.

I am talking about the brand Southern Fried Chicken.

Now we all like a bit of ‘dirty chicken’ now and again as my daughter calls it, but where does everyone head for such a wicked treat? To the Colonels of course, otherwise known as KFC.

With the UK economy as it stands at the moment I believe we need to support our UK based companies as much as possible.

Not so long ago I met Andrew Withers, CEO of Southern Fried Chicken who had a recent appearance on C4′s Undercover Boss. He is an absolutely charming man, who is exceedingly passionate about the quality of his product and the satisfaction of his customers.

You can read about the history of Southern Fried Chicken and local Reading boy Andrew who is now at the helm after taking over from his father, at www.southernfriedchicken.com 

You can also watch the C4 episode here

Andrew Withers, boss of Southern Fried Chicken, goes undercover in his fast food franchise, and is shocked by what he discovers about the standards, staff, food and customers.

Southern Fried Chicken was started by Andrew’s father back in the 1960s and now has outlets across the UK. Andrew feels passionately that the SFC brand in the UK is in need of an overhaul, and feels himself at odds with the carefully constructed image he has spent years developing for the brand in 70 countries overseas. In the UK, SFC is associated with post-pub late night binge eats rather than seen as a family restaurant.

Andrew spends time behind the counter to find out why the company’s 200 UK franchises aren’t living up to his expectations. Can he get his business back on track?

So before you drive to a KFC to line the pocket of the US economy, check out to see if there’s a Southern Fried Chicken near you…you know it makes sense.

Oh and one last thing, enjoy watching a Southern Fried Chicken team build a huge SFC bucket in snowy Russia amongst all the snowmen.

 
(Southern Fried Chicken’s headquarters are based in Woodley and the Reading branch is 164, Whitley Wood Road.)

To Hell on a Handcart Upgraded?

To Hell on a Handcart Upgraded?

Century Films are currently making a major documentary series about the rail network. Told from the point-of-view of staff and passengers, it’s exploring the upgrade of stations and tracks, the problems that bad weather can cause, the impact of crime … just about every aspect of daily railway life.

They are very keen to get in contact with people who regularly commute from / through Reading and into Paddington (First Great Western trains). The upgrade work that’s happening on this route is a big focus for the series, and they want to include the experience of passengers as well.

Do you use the route regularly? When do you use it? What’s your own FGW experience like?

Please contact Rob McCabe by email at robmccabe@mac.com or via his twitter account @robmccabe72


Thrills at Bill’s?

Everyone Likes a Freebie!

After a very lubricated Saturday night with two chums, experiencing the ‘oh dear, we’ve ended up in the After Dark club’ moment, a breakfast of fair substance was required the following morning.

There was a unanimous vote for Bill’s as the sun was shining and sitting opposite St. Mary’s Church in the fresh air seemed a good option.

The courtyard was exceedingly busy as would be expected. We found a table, sat down and waited for service. A very personable waiter appeared to take our drinks order, ravenous we were already primed to order our food…full English all round. We sneeked in our breakfast order by the skin of our teeth at approximately two minutes to twelve before breakfast service finished as our waiter told us.

Coffee, Earl Grey and freshly squeezed orange juice duly arrived, which was more than gratefully received. Given our ‘fragile’ state, carborific sustenance was in need urgently! After about twenty minutes and still no arrival of food the tweeters amongst us were doing what comes naturally and miraculously the waiter appeared, however it wasn’t our foodie needy tweets that had summoned the waiter but a natural apology of the tardy service and that a party of 25 had just pipped us at the post for our breakfast order. Now, call me pedantic but one would have thought that passing through our order of three breakfasts ahead of the 25 would have not resulted in our delayed service…but ho hum, it’s Sunday and go with the flow.

Ten more minutes passed and the charming front of house chap appeared at our table apologising for the delay and offered us more beverages and given our arid state that was very welcome.

Hurrah and Hussah…our breakfasts arrived albeit 25 minutes after we had ordered.

Three fully resplendent plates of eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom etc including apparently ‘bubble & squeek’.

I am fully aware that the proprieter of Bill’s is Antipodean and therefore ‘bubble & squeek’ would not be a staple dish down under. I think that maybe the chefs need to be educated that mash with a wee, and I mean wee, bit of sauteed savoy cabbage dotted within it does not equate to what we in the UK would associate with ‘bubble & squeek’ (I feel a whole new post coming on there)!

That aside, the breakfast was cooked exceedingly well and did the medicinal job it was ordered to do.

Fully sated and now all wilting, discussed our busy schedule for the rest of the day to veg in front of the TV for the German Grand Prix. After our plates were cleared, the exceedingly personable front of house chap effortlessly navigated his way to our table…”so sorry for the delay guys, I hope you enjoyed your breakfast. For the record the bill is squared away”.

We were more than happy to pay for our fayre, it was good, the staff were excellent, the only downfall was the tardiness of the arrival of our breakfast, but it is Sunday and we were chilling.

What a refreshing attitude to service…big brownie points to Bill’s.

Footnote:

My dining partners were @pdmckenzie and @_Andythehat

First (hmm) Great (Trades Descriptions Act) Western (Erm!)

So Long…Farewell….

I have a friend who is off to Gibraltar for two years today. On Wednesday he was going to jump on a train from North Camp (Farborough) to Reading so we could have a few beers and say cheerio. Train was due to leave North Camp at 21.29. By 21.45 I was at Reading station waiting…text from him saying it was delayed until 21.54…that was the time of the next scheduled service. Ok, he can still get that….what do I do, well a) I needed to powder my nose (sorry, if you need to pee you can’t use the toilets at that time in Reading station, they are all shuttered up) and then b) still needing nose powdering, nearest powdery nose place was the Three Guineas, could be worse.

Nose powdered, glass of wine bought…TEXT “f**king saying it’s 22.12 now!” Hmm, I could sense a little tenseness from this text!!

I called National Rail Enquiries 08457 48 49 50, after the numerous options I get through:

Me: “Hello, can you please tell me when the 21.29 from North Camp will be arriving”

NRE: “Where is North Camp?”

Me: “Farnborough”

NRE: “The next train from Farnborough is….”

Me: (I interrupt) There are two stations in Farnborough, I want North Camp

NRE: “Oh”

Me: “My friend was at the station to catch the 21.29, he is still there, what is the reason for the delay?”

NRE: ” The train is delayed by 59 mins”

Me: “Can you tell me why this is?”

NRE: “No”

Me: “Surely you must know why a train has been delayed by an hour and what happened to the intermittent train?”

NRE: “No I can’t, there is no information”

Me: ” I have to say I am surprised at the lack of information and the poor service and the fact that my friend has been waiting there for over 45 mins and you have no explanation”

SILENCE

Me: ” Hello, are you there?…..Can you speak to me?”

NRE: ” Yes I am here I was nodding in agreement with you”

Me: ” I am talking to you on the phone I cannot see you… nodding doesn’t help”

SILENCE (I presumed more nodding was taking place)

NRE: ” Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Me: “Erm, I think not”

TEXT “Fed up, pissed off, cold, wet, going home”

Thank you First Great Western for our farewell drink.

Chink Chink cheers to you!

I wonder if they’ll pay for my flight to Gibraltar?

SILENCE

Is that them nodding???

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